Flowers of Trees
by xellos540
Summary: The Hyuuga and the Sarutobi clans are well-known in Konoha, yet Hanabi and Konohamaru managed to become chuunins without knowing of the other's existence. Now this is about to change! Will the differences between our obnoxious shinobi and prideful kunoichi result in disaster? Or maybe the sakura flowers will not be the only thing to bloom this year?
1. Author's notes

**Hello, everyone!**

**I present you my Konohamaru x Hanabi fanfiction story, starting with a prologue following these author's notes. A few more chapters are "done" already, so they might be posted relatively soon. This is meant to not disturb the frequency of updates even if I'm stuck on later chapters, though...**

**Timeline and setting: after the Fourth Great Shinobi War, therefore I assumed my own ending to the current events. I also took liberties with Hanabi's personality, although this will be (hopefully) explained further in the story. There might be some inconsistencies concerning the age of the characters. Konohamaru and his peers are 16, Hanabi is 15, meaning Naurto is around 20... or at least he should be.**

**Warnings: the story contains major manga (and consequently anime) spoilers. The story will probably contain violence, coarse language and mild adult themes. The rating may change to M. My lacking English skills should be a warning as well... probably.  
**

**Pairings: mainly KonoHana, but NaruSaku and one-sided Moegi x Konohamaru and Moegi x Udon is mentioned (at least at the moment).**

**Disclaimer: Naruto manga is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and other concerned parties. I am not a member of any of those and therefore I don't own Naruto in any form. The only thing I own is authorship of this fan-made story.**

**Okay, enough words wasted, I believe, so onto the prologue (next chapter actually)!**


	2. Prologue

**Here's the prologue.**

**Disclaimer: read previous chapter for details.**

(* * *)

"Are you really sure about this?" Tsunade asked, her voice surprisingly gentle and hinted with worry. Her brown eyes, however, remained sharp and filled with authority as she gazed at the man in front of her.

"Absolutely, Hokage-sama" the man answered. "I believe it to be the quickest and most efficient learning experience. At least in teamwork and other issues. And I also believe that the rest can benefit from it as well, since-".

"No need to elaborate, I see your point..." the Godaime interrupted. "And I agree completely... It's just..." she regarded him once more, her elbows on her desk, her nose close to her clasped hands. "Intriguing" she finished.

"What is?" the man asked, seemingly puzzled.

Tsunade gaze hardened a little. "Frankly... there were probably other cases like that... Probably more than a few... yet you never asked for such things. Neither of your clansmates did, for that matter. Not like that".

The whole issue was, in essence, rather trivial, but she was making it sound like it was some terrible decision. Then again she needed to be sure.

"That was before" the man managed with some degree of well-hidden embarrassment. "I mean before all that, be-"

"Before Naruto... Is that what you meant?" she cut him off, a small, surprisingly sad, smile on her lips.

"You could say that..."

Short silence ensued.

"I have an urgent clan meeting that I need to attend shortly. May I come tomorrow to hear your decision?".

"No need. I've already decided. I shall grant your request and will take care of the details depending on our current possibilities. I just hope all concerned parties will benefit from this as you say."

The man bowed slightly. "I am deeply grateful, Hokage-sama...".

"Yeah, yeah" Tsunade waved him off, already in her normal mood.

"I will take my leave, then" the man bowed once more, then nodded in the general direction of Shizune and turned around, heading for the door.

His hand was already on the doorknob when Tsunade spoke again.

"One more thing".

The man turned around. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade was silent for a moment, her eyes closed. Then she opened them, her gaze hard again.

"Does she know?"

Her voice had told Hyuuga Hiashi that she knew the answer to that already.

(* * *)

**Soo... What could have Hiashi possibly requested? Read next chapter and find out!**

**Reviews and constructive criticism will be much appreciated!**


	3. New team

**Hello again... here's the first "real" chapter... four times longer than the author's notes and the prologue combined.  
**

**I feel obligated to warn you – next chapters will be even longer.**

**Disclaimer: the same as the previous one, since nothing's changed.**

(* * *)

"WHAT?!" Hyuuga Hanabi shrieked, her face a mix of angry and incredulous. "You're not serious! You can't be!"

Hiashi remained calm, even though he internally flinched at the sheer volume of voice his daughter managed to produce.

"It have already discussed this matter with the Hokage and she agreed to it. It is already done" he stated.

Hanabi eyes widened for a moment, clear with surprise. "What do you mean she agreed?" she asked. "You were the one who suggested it?" surprise was replaced with anger.

Hiashi closed his eyes and sighed slightly. He knew it would be like this.

"Yes, Hanabi. I was the one to suggest for you to be placed in another team. I believe it is the best option for you to improve in various areas".

"Improve?! I am already better than Hinata-neesama and better than... better than Neji..." Hiashi's brows furrowed at the mention of his deceased nephew. "...when he was my age. I am a chunnin" she said firmly. "Why would I need improvement from associating with some common village shinobi? The only reason Neji was in a common genin team was because he was in the branch family. And as for Hinata, she was just weak" she spat, quite loudly again.

Hiashi was sure rumors will be floating around the Hyuuga compound, what with her tone of voice. Hanabi could be rather respectful and well-mannered when she wanted to be. The life in the Hyuuga clan tended to do that to you. However, she was also a spitfire and quite arrogant inside. She was supposed to be the heir of the main family – above the status of Neji and more capable than Hinata. It was quite intriguing actually. She combined the birth rights of her sister and the talent and confidence of her cousin. In result she was deprived of the inhibitions and doubts that plagued Hinata and had every right to expect a different place in life than Neji.

Hanabi wanted to be recognized as being worthy the position of the head of the clan, but elders and Hiashi himself had problems choosing between the siblings. He knew that deep inside Hanabi cared for her sister. It showed, even if Hanabi didn't notice it herself. At the same time he understood Hanabi's frustration with Hinata's progress. The shy Hyuuga girl came a long way and was getting better everyday in order to prove her worth. Granted, Hanabi was probably a better fighter at the moment, but Hinata continued to work hard. Such an improvement seemed impossible, but it happened over and over. At this rate...

He sighed once again. Now was not the time to think about this.

"It is true what you say about your fighting skills. However, what you need to understand is that you... lack in some other areas. And in that regard Hinata is superior to you as was Neji. Far superior."

"Like what?"

"Your teamwork, for example, and your ninjutsu skills aside from our clan techniques" Hiashi stated plainly. "The training and education in our clan are, unfortunately, not very good for that" it was quite obvious actually, but the Hyuuga used to rely only on their own clan abilities and were never concerned with that. Not before Naruto, like the Hokage put it. "You are a kunoichi of Konoha and I want you to be able to work for your village and protect it when needed, as well as you work for and protect your clan. That means you have to learn from other shinobi as well. And I will have you know that your easy chuunin promotion was mainly due to your heritage. Your leadership skills may not be as good as you think."

Hanabi went silent, although Hiashi attributed it more to her anger than patience and understanding. He continued.

"There's more to it. You would be surprised how much you could learn from common chuunin team, even if they happen to be below average. What I want is for you to work with them and observe them. If you notice anything useful, that they can do, but you can't – learn it. Treat it as natural and crucial part of your training" he stopped for a moment. "I want you to meet your new team tomorrow morning in the Hokage's office. Do you understand?"

"Yes, father..."

"Very well, you may leave now".

Hanabi rose from the ground where she was sitting and calmly walked out of the room. Hiashi turned slightly to observe her. He very much doubted her obedience, but at least she couldn't openly refuse him. In Hyuuga household it was much closer to an actual order than to request.

(* * *)

Sarutobi Konohamaru, age 16, walked through the streets of Konoha alongside his team, heading for the Hokage's office located at the Ninja Academy. His inseparable blue scarf hanged from his neck, but was now much shorter, more reminiscent of Naruto's black bandana, though Konohamaru refused to make that particular connection, stating that he will walk his own way to the Hokage title and refused to mimic his mentor. Still, the only reason while the scarf managed to stay above ground was due to Konohamaru measuring now almost 170 cm in height. However, how he was able to keep both his scarf and the green vest that proved his chuunin status was a mystery.

"I wonder what kind of mission we will get this time" he mused aloud. "I hope it's not some crappy C-rank mission again..."

"As far as I remember, we were just summoned by the Hokage. There was no information about any mission whatsoever. Hokage might have dozens of other reasons to summon us. Some of which you surely remember, right Konohamaru?" Ebisu, who looked as always, remarked, one hand touching his glasses.

His comment was followed by the snigger from the rest of the team, aside from Konohamaru, resulting in the self-conceited chuunin throwing an angry side glance at his jounin team leader.

"It was not my fault!" he protested, loudly as usual. "Those bandits had been much more prepared than what we knew from the briefing!"

"It doesn't matter. You shouldn't let it surprise you. A ninja always needs to look..."

"beneath the underneath, yeah, I know" Konohamaru finished, rolling his eyes. Honestly, how did Naruto manage to deal with this constant lecturing all these years?

"Still" Udon interjected. "We were getting mainly C-rank missions for some time now" he said matter-of-factly. He didn't change much from his genin years, except for his trademark snot, which seemed to disappear almost completely. "Konohamaru-kun can't be the reason for all of them. I wonder if it will always be like that."

Konohamaru shot him a glance as well, but Udon was right. After the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War there was much less pressure and conflict between the five great nations and the alliance still existed for the most part. Of course, the feudal lords were always in need of shinobi services (Konohamaru shivered at the thought of Tora the cat). The danger of missing-nins was constantly present as well. Still, the lack of great and dangerous spy and battle missions was evident. Konohamaru did not like that. He was happy, that Naruto's dream of peace was bearing fruit, but how was he supposed to become the Great Seventh Hokage of Konohagakure if he wasn't being given much chance to prove himself? That was not fair!

"Don't say it like that, Udon-kun!" Moegi countered firmly, scowling a little, which caused the rest of her team to sweat briefly. The girl's fierce temper was known by all three of them. "I am sure that there will be plenty of interesting missions" she argued. "We just need to wait for them" she told Konohamaru with a nervous smile on her face. "Right, Ebisu-sensei?"

Ebisu looked at Moegi from behind his sunglasses. Her most evident change, aside from the chuunin vest and clothing style – which greatly resembled Sakura's – was almost complete lack of the permanent blush she once sported. At least most of the time, as right now Moegi's cheeks were hinted pink as she continued to gaze at Konohamaru.

Ebisu was positive that Moegi would be quite content with the difficulty of their current missions if it weren't for Konohamaru's frustration with it. The jounin could easily see that the young kunoichi had a crush on the Hokage's grandson, but Konohamaru remained uninterested or, more probably, oblivious to it. He sighed. Why couldn't there be at least one genin team that graduated from the academy without love problems? He was so much out of his element here. He touched his glasses out of habit.

"That's very possible" he answered Moegi's question. "It's just that we have much more active duty shinobi than we currently need. But after some time, we will be simply getting less academy students and some of the current shinobi will retire, so there will be more work for the remaining ones. And I'm sure there will be more important missions as well. After all, there are many dangerous and evil people in the world that may be of shinobi heritage and are capable of using chakra, even if they are not shinobi themselves. So cheer up, Konohamaru!"

"Yeah, yeah, if you say so, sensei" the boy put his hands behind his head and looked at the blue sky above. Maybe they are right. Hopefully, he will have enough time before Naruto resigns from the position of the Sixth Hokage, he thought as the team continued on their course.

(* * *)

"All of this is a little sudden, but I believe it to be a very good idea. Actually, you should be thankful and I'm sure-" Tsunade was cut off by the knocking. "Come in!"

Ebisu's team walked in.

"We are here as you requested, Hokage-sama" Ebisu announced, but then he spotted that Tsunade was talking with – his eyes widened – the Hyuuga supposed-to-be heiress. This was unusual to say the least. "Errm... shall we wait outside?"

"Not at all. This matter concerns you as well. In fact, I have summoned you solely for this. I was just telling Hanabi that you will be happy to welcome her in your team" Tsunade explained, with her eyes closed and a false sweet smile that spelled disaster.

The girl in question turned to them and bowed slightly. "My name is Hyuuga Hanabi. Glad to make you acquaintance. I hope we can all work together, so please take good care of me."

She said all this without much trace of emotion, but when her face raised from the bow Konohomaru noticed the look of steel confidence, cold superiority as well as sheer displeasure. It was evident even to him.

He didn't know much about the Hyuuga clan and from the looks of it, it was not as if they wanted others to know much about them. Naruto used to say that the Hyuugas were often misunderstood as cold and gloom people proud of their heritage and afraid of losing it, with only some exceptions like Neji or Hinata. But Naruto believed that they were good and caring people deep inside. Possibly very deep, though.

As Konohamaru looked at the young Hyuuga girl he immediately took note of her pale violet, almost white eyes – the testament to the kekkei genkai she possessed – and her long brown hair. She seemed shorter than him by several inches. She was dressed in a mix between what was, as he guessed, traditional Hyuuga clothing (most probably for males) and a standard chuunin gear and vest. Her face was cute, pretty even, but the final effect was spoiled by her stiff behavior as well as hard and fierce glare. He noticed that she was looking rather frail and delicate, even while wearing male clothing. He also immediately knew that it was very unlikely so.

He looked at Udon and Moegi. The boy seemed largely unfazed, aside from the slightly confused gaze, making him look even less focused than normal. His other teammate regarded the Hyuuga girl with a look full of suspicion and almost as cold as Hyuuga's, which surprised him a little. He turned back to look at Hanabi.

So this girl was supposed to go with them on their next mission? Why? That would mean that there will be even less work for each of them than usual. Meaning less chance for him to prove himself. Just perfect...

It seemed that his sensei agreed with him for once.

"If I may, Hokage-sama..." Ebisu said, obviously not seeing the wordless exchange between the teenagers.

"Yes?"

"Is our next mission really that difficult, for us to need help? Isn't Hanabi-san needed in her own team?" he asked.

Hanabi uttered a quiet hiss, that told Ebisu what he already knew – she wasn't happy with this and, judging from the Hyuuga general behaviour, his students won't be either.

"Next mission?" Tsunade repeated his words. "You seemed to misunderstood me."

Looks like it, Ebisu thought.

"Hanabi is currently not a part of any existing team."

Just as I predicted.

"And I didn't call you to give you a mission today".

Once again, just as I-Wait, what? "I don't understand Hokage-sama..." from the looks on their faces, the same could be said for his entire team.

The Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure stood up and walked to the front of her desk, where Hanabi was standing.

"Hanabi's father has asked for her to be included in one of the existing shinobi teams of her age for some time and I have chosen your team for this task" she said smiling, obviously amused by their shocked expressions. "Hiashi and I both believe that such an arrangement will be beneficial for the vital skills of all of you, including your teaching skills, Ebisu".

Said jounin started to sweat profusely.

"H-how long will it last?" he asked.

"That will depend on your progress, but for some reason" at this point Tsunade fixed her gaze on Konohamaru. "I think it will take a while" she must have remembered all of Konohamaru's pranks, mishaps, perverted looks and comments. The boy was sure of that.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you will all get along..." Hanabi hissed again, obviously in disagreement, but flinched when she felt Tsunade's hand on her shoulder.

"Now Hanabi-chan, be a good girl your father wants you to be" Tsunade growing fake smile was matching the increasing pressure she was putting on her shoulder. "And go to you new team" she pushed her not so gently, almost making her stumble and earning a glare.

"I know that you will need some time to get to know each other" Tsunade said once she was in her chair again. "So I give team Ebisu two days off. After that I expect all of you to meet me for your next mission. Dismissed."

Once they left the room Tsunade sighed and then grinned to herself. That went well, she has granted Hiashi's request and managed to leave all the problems with Ebisu and his team, taking the burden off her shoulders. Quite a good way to start the day. Now, how could she make it even better?

"Shizune! Bring me some Sake!"

(* * *)

******With the combined forces of Tsunade and Hiashi all the** main actors are assembled and the stage is set ^^.  


**Basic interactions and features of Hanabi and Moegi had been outlined as well (I hope).**

**If you want to find out whether our new team will hold together or spontaneously combust stay tuned for the next chapter of Flowers of Trees!**

**Reviews are most welcome.**


	4. Introductions

**Hello, again!**

**Firstly, thank you for your reviews and follows, they were very motivating! **

**Secondly, I decided to post this chapter earlier than I intended. This means that the next one will not appear for a week.  
**

**Now onto the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: you know the drill.**

(* * *)

"So, just as our Hokage said – we welcome you into our team, Hanabi!"

They were currently in a park not far away from the academy, shielded from the sun by the foliage – truly hidden by the leaves of trees.

"I hope we will all get along and that you all will be able to work hard for the sake of your teammates!" Ebisu continued.

True, he was not exactly delighted to have four students, two of them inherently troublesome, in his team. Nonetheless, he was one of the best jounin teachers in the village and all of the Hokage's arguments were valid, more or less. It was his duty to make sure these young shinobi improved. Not mentioning that his teaching skills may have indeed have dulled. Something to do with him attending to general jounin duties the past few years.

In short: he accepted the challenge.

He went silent for a moment, regarding all four of his students to see their reactions. Udon was the most calm, probably even feeling safer with another teammate. He was the only one who seemed to be really listening to him now.

He looked at his most precious student: Konohamaru. He looked a little peeved, but that was more likely due to their lack of missions than anything else. He was shooting curious glances towards Hanabi, obviously not knowing what to think of their current predicament.

Moegi, on the other hand, seemed to know enough, as she took great care in ignoring her new teammate, not looking at her at all.

Hanabi herself seemed collected, respectful and appeared to listen well, but Ebisu knew it was just a mask and poor one at that. The girl was obviously displeased with the turn of events.

"Now, let us start with the traditional get-to-know-each-other. I want each of you to tell us your likes, dislikes, dreams and hobbies. Who wants to start? How about you Hanabi?"

Hanabi looked at him with surprise. "Traditional talk? You mean shinobi tell things like that to people in their team?" she asked, voice full of doubt.

At this remark the remaining three chuunins, Moegi included, looked at her with disbelief. Ebisu took note that Hanabi said "people in their team" instead of "teammates". He did not sigh this time, however. It's not like it was unexpected...

"Yes, Hanabi, teammates do things like that" he assured her.

"Why?"

"To build trust and to learn about your teammates, their views and goals. It's the first step to understand them, which is essential for any advanced form of teamwork".

From the looks of it, Hanabi remained unconvinced.

"Perhaps it is best, to show you" he concluded. "Udon-kun, would you be so kind?"

"Yes, sensei" Udon answered and then turned to face all of his teammates. "My name is Sobaya Udon" he started. "I love math. I don't like dangerous and long missions. As for my hobbies I like solving math problems. I dream to be strong and cool shinobi like Uchiha Sasuke".

Moegi smiled at him and Konohamaru rolled his eyes – Udon's preferences known by heart to both of them. Hanabi, however, was slightly curious. Not about the math or the mission part, but about his admiration of the Uchiha shinobi. Was this boy capable of respect for high-class shinobi clans?

"Yeah, we know, Udon-kun" Moegi stated. "As for me, I am Hatsuko Moegi. I like my teammates" a quick side glance and a giggle clearly indicated which teammate she liked the most, although the hint was apparent only to Ebisu. "As for my dislikes, I hate people who do not care about their comrades" this comment was directed at Hanabi and just as subtle as previous one. Thank Kami that the Hyuuga girl was slow on the uptake in social matters. Ebisu will have to work on Moegi, for all of their sakes. "My hobby is to hang out with my friends. My dream is to become beautiful, strong and wise kunoichi and a student of Sakura-senpai!"

"Very good, Moegi" Ebisu said. "Now, Konoha-"

"Alright!" the Sarutobi chuunin seemed pumped up. "I am Sarutobi Konohamaru, the grandson of the Third Hokage of Konohagakure!" he exclaimed loudly. "I like training, doing exciting missions, ramen and chocolate-covered bananas! I hate onions!" he was spewing each word at alarming speed with no sign of hesitation or slowing down. "My hobby is to develop new jutsus! My dream is to become the Seventh Hokage of Konohagakure and to protect my teammates, friends and all the villagers! My wish is to defeat Naruto-niichan and become great shinobi like him! My favourite phrase is 'There are no short cuts on the road to Hokage'. I believ-"

"That's quite enough, Konohamaru-kun, I think we all get it" Ebisu interrupted, sweatdropping.

Hanabi was flabbergasted. This chuunin was loud and obnoxious. Most of the things he said were either childish (like he could even become Hokage and why the Seventh?) or downright stupid. Nonetheless, the Hyuuga were supposed to be observant and the girl did notice a few interesting things.

Firstly, the boy, she didn't realize it before, was a Sarutobi and a grandson of a Hokage at that. Why not truly a noble by birth (and not by manners obviously), the noisy chuunin was no ordinary shinobi and she probably owed him more respect. Not that she was happy about that. Secondly, he seemed oddly determined and sure of himself, something that had more to do with belief than self-conceit. His words about the Hokage title and path were pretty accurate. He probably got this wisdom from someone else, but still he was not entirely naïve. Lastly, he mentioned Naruto. Did he mean Uzumaki Naruto? The Uzumaki Naruto?

Hanabi was not that well informed, but from what she knew the shinobi in question was the student of famous shinobis like Hatake Kakashi and the legendary sannin Jiraiya. And the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, even if she didn't know what that meant. Rumour had it that he was the son of the Fourth Hokage and was a powerful shinobi even during his genin years. She remembered that he managed to actually beat her cousin, using some weird power she has never seen before, during chuunin exams when she was seven. He didn't look anything close to impressive most of the time, but if all this was true, then such a shinobi commanded great respect, such that even Konohamaru admired him, but failed to show it properly (calling him niichan of all things). Bah! She heard that the Hokage herself held Naruto in high esteem.

It was than when she realized that all three of her teammates wanted to be like some powerful and renowned shinobi. Uchiha Sasuke. Haruno Sakura. And Uzumaki Naruto. Those names could be heard even inside the walls of the Hyuuga compound. Those three were trained by the legendary sannin, right? Could she be looking at the next generation of sannin in making?

Ridiculous!

"See, Hanabi? Just like that. It's your turn now!" Hanabi was snapped out of her reverie and noticed that all four of them were looking at her. She frowned.

Hanabi was very much used to people looking at her, being candidate for the head of the clan and all. At the moment she should just bask in the attention. But she didn't, she felt nervous instead. Probably something to do with the success pressure that was following her more and more lately.

She should just get it over with. If they could do it, then so could she. No big deal. She straightened herself and then bowed slightly.

"My name is Hyuuga Hanabi" she started in a humble, but a little automatic voice. "A member of the main family of the Hyuuga clan and a chuunin of Konohagakure" now came the likes and dislikes part, right? "I like to train... with my father" she hesitated for a moment her voice changing visibly. "I also like bananas and milk" and not much else, she added in her thoughts. "I dislike mitsuba... and people who do not know their place, are obnoxious and disrespectful" and my sister, and my father, and my clan. "My hobby is to train and hone my skills. My dream is to..." she stopped abruptly.

What were her dreams? To become the head of the clan? To prove herself to her father? For some reason she didn't want to tell them that. They knew it by now, right? Aside from that, did she even have any other dreams? "My dream... is to become a valuable kunoichi to the village of Konohagakure" she finished lamely. Even she knew that it was lame.

Ebisu either didn't notice or didn't care. "Very good, Hanabi" he said, much to her surprise. Why would he want to praise her for something like that when her performance was kind of poor? He obviously wouldn't.

"Now that we're done with it, it's time to move to th-"

"Oi, oi, aren't you forgetting something, sensei?" Konohamaru sneered.

"That's right! The teachers are supposed to do the introduction too" Moegi explained, smirking as well.

"Yeah, it is important that Hanabi knows about Ebisu-sensei as well" Udon agreed, even he was sporting a small smile.

"Ah, you're right!" Ebisu admitted, eyebrow twitching. Damn them! He hoped that he will be able to weasel out of this. Why his students couldn't be this observant during missions?

"Well then, my name is Hayakawa Ebisu, I'm a jounin and elite teacher of Konohagakure. I like kamaboko and fried crab and I dislike carrots and unruly kids" he glanced meaningfully at Konohamaru, who pretended he didn't hear him. "My hobby is to raise elite ninjas. I wish to face other shinobi tutors throughout the world!" he finished.

Hanabi was confused. They were all weird, she wondered how all them, except Ebisu, could be chuunins. Did they have any good points? Even their passionate determination didn't quite impress the Hyuuga girl, it was no different from recklessness that could very much be the reason for their deaths in action.

"Now, since we have two days off I would like for us to have some team training tomorrow. Meet me at 6 o'clock at the third training grounds! That's it for today, team!"

Udon, Moegi and Konohamaru blinked at once and then let out a collective "WHAT?!"

(* * *)

"So what do you think of Hanabi-san?" Udon asked.

He, Moegi and Konohamaru were walking back through the streets of Konoha. Konohamaru eyed him briefly. It was difficult whether he was referring to the girl by Hanabi-san out of respect or fear of future quarrels. Probably the latter, if their experience from dealing with Moegi and Sakura were anything to go by.

"I don't like her! She only sees the top of her nose!" Moegi responded acridly. "She doesn't care for her teammates as long as they don't get in her way! I wish her father didn't request for her to be placed in our team."

"It was Tsuanade-baachan who chose our team, remember?" Konohamaru interjected. "But I agree, that girl seriously needs to unwind. I wonder if all Hyuugas are like that – respect and manners along with arrogance and pride."

"Still, we are teammates now" Udon stated. "We need to work together. And I don't mind her helping..."

"Help? Bah! I wonder if she can do anything aside from her fancy eyes and taijutsu" Moegi was still unconvinced.

Konohamaru frowned. He was not too happy with this situation either, but he had a feeling that the Hyuuga girl possessed a few considerable shinobi skills. Not that he was afraid of losing to her...

"I don't know, Moegi, she was trained by the Hyuuga clan head. She might be good actually..."

"I don't think so" Moegi responded, clearly offended that Konohamaru defended the girl. "Besides, even if she was good, she would probably do things on her own. I bet she has poor teamwork."

"We shouldn't underestimate her, I think we should give her a chance."

"Hmpf!"

"Umm... How about some dango? My treat" Udon had to pacify Moegi before the argument grows and he has to deal with both of them.

The girl eyed him suspiciously. Could she have seen right through him?

"Fine!" she responded and started to walk towards the dango shop, her teammates turning to follow her. "But mark my words! We will all regret the moment this girl was put in our team!"

(* * *)

Hanabi walked through the corridors of the Hyuuga compound, deep in her thoughts, her mind still on her new team. They were so... undisciplined, loud, unimpressive and irresponsible. And they were still under tutelage of a jounin. Why they were not having their own missions? They were chuunins for Kami's sake! But then again, so was she, yet she did mission only in the company of her Hyuuga clansmen.

She sighed. Did father really want for her to be a part of some team? And that team in particular?

As on cue, one of the doors she was just about to pass on her way to her room slid open.

"Hanabi."

She stopped abruptly and then turned around and, of course, she saw Hyuuga Hiashi sitting inside. "Yes, father?"

"I need to speak with you" he responded calmly, eyes closed as if meditating.

Hanabi nodded and moment later she was sitting in front of Hiashi.

"You're back quickly. How was your first day with your new team?"

So that's what he wanted to talk about. Obviously.

"Not very good. I was assigned to team led by Hayakawa Ebisu" she explained.

Hiashi's eyes opened. He though for a moment, recollecting what he knew about Ebisu.

"Then I take it that one of your teammates is a Sarutobi?"

Hanabi perked at that. Her father must be really well informed to know about such details.

"Yes, father."

"What do you mean that it wasn't very good?"

Hanabi closed her eyes for a moment to calm herself. She couldn't do outbursts like the one yesterday too often. She didn't want to anger father after all.

"Well, we didn't do much and we were given two days off by the Hokage, so we could get to know each other. We did this peculiar tradition of telling others your dreams and dislikes" she paused, waiting for Hiashi to admit the peculiarity of it, but it never came.

"I understand. Continue."

"We were ordered to meet tomorrow for training. That's all" she finished.

Hiashi regarded her for a moment. "That's not a busy day, but it's typical for new teams" he paused for a moment. "You didn't mention your teammates."

"What's there to mention?" Hanabi shot back. "They are stupid kids with no sense of honour and discipline. They all admire great shinobi, but fail to show proper respect!" she ranted. "Even this Sarutobi boy... No, especially him! He is a goofy idiot, not befitting the rank of a genin, much alone chuunin!"

Hiashi observed her calmly. It was true to some extent. Sarutobi kid was similar to Uzumaki, even learned from him. He was bound to be carefree and idiotic. Maybe even perverted. But that also meant he was dedicated, loyal and hard-working when needed. From what he heard the boy was able to defeat one of the Peins with the rasengan. This rumour was probably only half-true. Still, the young Sarutobi seemed to know by heart things that will be beneficial to Hanabi. And Ebisu is known as a great tutor. The Hokage did a good job.

"I didn't ask for this team specifically, but I'm glad with this arrangement."

"What?" Hanabi was on her feet now. Hiashi was sure that she was going to throw one of her little tantrums, but Hanabi seemed to be driven by fear rather than anger. "You can't be serious!"

Hiashi sighed. This felt like déjà vu and he could already feel the approaching headache. "If you thought that I will go to the Hokage and withdraw my request, then you were wrong" he stated calmly. "It would make us look unreliable."

"Father, do you really think that I can improve by being surrounded by them?"

"And you don't?"

"Of course not!"

The corner of Hiashi's lips lifted upwards in small, but dangerous smile.

"Let's make a deal. If you return tomorrow from your training and again tell me that you truly think so, then I will have you removed from this team and will not ask for another one" he offered. "Do you agree?"

Hanabi hesitated, feeling a foreboding. Her father seemed more sure of himself than she felt herself.

"Yes."

"Then we have a deal" he stated matter-of-factly. "I think you should go to sleep. It seems you have a busy day ahead of you."

"Yes, father."

When she left Hiashi sighed again. If he hadn't been Hanabi's father, he might not have believed that she used to be modest, respectful and, most of all, quiet. That, however, was when Hinata was still a disappointment and a disgrace to the clan while Hanabi was a heiress-to-be convinced of her future and pampered all the time. When her position in the clan was questioned, her difficult, but comfortable life was turned upside down. This resulted in spoiled and whimsical girl who demanded, quite loudly, her old place in the clan.

He could only hope that her team experience will help her go back to her old self, if only a little. It was his fault anyway. And not to mention that her future might take another hit soon.

All of this was his fault.

(* * *)

Hanabi was in her bed, thinking about her team, her father, her clan... and by extension, about herself. Was her father right? Even if he was, this still will be troublesome, boring and kind of offensive experience.

Flooded by her gloomy thoughts, she fallen into a restless slumber.

(* * *)

"Good morning, team!" Ebisu announced happily.

"Good morning..." Udon answered, nowhere near as cheerful. If normally drowsy, he seemed to be sleeping now, leaning on one of the three stakes, his snot replaced with drool hanging from his mouth.

"Good..." a long and undisturbed yawn. "...morning-sensei" Moegi was not much better than him.

"Hmpf!" Konohamaru snorted from his position, sitting with his legs crossed on top of the stake next to Udon. He was faring considerably better than his friends, enough to be actually angry. It was obvious what he thought of the training at his hour.

"Good morning, sensei" Hanabi said slowly and bowed slightly, clearly the most awake of them all. It's not like training early in the morning was new to her. It was just those three morons were a disappointment. Yet, she smiled on the inside.

Her bet with her father was looking pretty good so far.

"So... what do we do now, sensei?" from the tone of his voice it was evident that Konohamaru hoped his stupid teacher had a good reason for such morning training session.

"Ah... just a little exercise I wanted all of you to do" he paused until he knew he had all of their attention. "You're task will be to obtain two of this bells" he produced said items from his vest. "The exercise is over as soon as you get both of them."

"Why do we need to do such a stupid exercise?" Konohamaru complained.

Hanabi couldn't agree more.

"This is will be a great teamwork experience and I think it is essential for all you to understand how important the teamwork is. Especially for Hanabi, since-"

"With all due respect, sensei" Hanabi interrupted him, which was so out of place that all of them glanced at her. Ebisu raised his eyebrow. "You can't expect me to work with them" she gestured to the three chuunins. "Besides, my performance is best when I'm on my own. All they need to do is not get in my way and I'm sur-"

"That's it!" it was Moegi's turn to interrupt. She walked – no, stomped – towards the Hyuuga girl.

"Do you think you're better than all of us? You have no right to talk about us like that!" she was practically seething with anger, making Udon step back in fear.

Hanabi, on the other hand, didn't look afraid at all. "Of course I do! Why would I be considered inferior to some weak excuse of a chuunin like you?"

Moegi gritted her teeth.

"I've had enough with this!" she assumed fighting stance. "Would you like to prove that little statement, little missy?"

"What?" Hanabi was visibly disturbed for the first time, her expression matching that of Moegi. "You dare to question my skills?"

"Umm... girls" Udon tried to stop them, but they didn't seem to notice.

"You need to ask? Seems like there are things you can't get or see even with those eyes of yours, huh? " Moegi taunted.

Hanabi hissed. Udon gulped. Konohamaru cursed under his breath. And Ebisu smiled.

"All right..." Hanabi shifted, one open-palmed hand in front of her in a typical Hyuuga fighting pose. "I'll show you. Ready when you-"

She was interrupted yet again, swinging her body to the side, watching as two shurikens passed her by. She balanced back just as Moegi charged at her.

She slashed at Hanabi with a kunai, but the other girl dodged and quickly countered with a palm strike from above. Without the aid of the Byakugan, the potential of the attack was limited. Still, Moegi hit the ground painfully.

Hanabi sneered.

"What's the matter? Needing cheap tricks to win?" she mocked. "Not good enough to fight fair?"

Poof.

The white smoke revealed a log instead of Moegi.

Kawarimi no jutsu? thought Hanabi. When did she...

"Fight fair?" she heard Moegi's voice behind herself. She turned and saw that the girl was right behind her, aiming at her with a right hook. "We are shinobi! We don't fight fair!"

Hanabi moved purely on instinct. She rotated, grabbed her opponent in mid-air and intended to throw her to the ground once more. Moegi, however, landed on her feet and quickly somersaulted back, dashing towards Hanabi as soon as she touched the ground and going for a roundhouse kick.

But Hanabi had already activated her Byakugan. She ducked under Moegi's kick and hit her flat in the stomach with the Juuken, sending her flying a few feet backwards in a cloud of dust.

"Aww!" Moegi whined, when she attempted to stand.

"Who's next?" Hanabi asked, back in her stance, superiority sparkling in her eyes.

Konohamaru jumped down from his stake. "Told you so..." he shot in the direction of Moegi and the turned back to Hanabi. "And you, what do you think you're doing!?" he barked at her.

"She got what she deserved" Hanabi shot back, eyes narrowing. "If you want to be next, then shut up and-" she stopped abruptly, eyes-widening.

"Hanabi-san!" Udon shouted, losing his calm as well, but then noticed that Hanabi turned to the side and deactivated her Byakugan. Before he could turn himself he heard a new voice.

"Hey! Is that how teammates are supposed to treat each other?"

All of them turned to look in the same direction as Hanabi just in time to see two figures land a few meters away from them.

Hanabi was speechless, staring at the newcomers as they started to walk in their direction. They looked like... No, they couldn't be...

"Naruto-niichan!"

"Sakura-senpai?"

They were.

"Hey, Konohamaru!" greeted the blonde, orange-wearing shinobi, with a smile so wide, that it couldn't possibly be healthy.

"Hello, Moegi, Ebisu-sensei" the pink-haired kunoichi answered.

"What are you doing here?" Konohamaru asked puzzled. He knew that this training ground was used by Team 7 frequently, but he was sure that his stupid teacher reserved it for them today.

"That's what we should be asking you, don't ya think?" Naruto shot back, though he continued to smile.

They stopped just a feet away from there. Naruto glanced at each of them.

When he looked at Hanabi the girl felt that it was the best moment to introduce herself.

"I am Hyuuga Hanabi of the Hyuuga clan" she said, her voice a little higher and more hasty than she intended. "I take that you are the Great Uzumaki Naruto" she continued. "It's an honour to make you acquaintance" she bowed at the end.

"You're Hinata's little sister, right?" Naruto asked, his smile fading a little. That was not the response she expected.

"Yes..." she admitted hesitantly. It was always "Hinata's little sister". Never "Hanabi's older one". Not anymore.

"I see..." Naruto glanced at Ebisu. "It makes sense now."

"Of course it does" Sakura smacked his head from above gently enough to be considered almost affectionate. "I told you so from the beginning..."

"Umm... Sakura-san" Udon interjected. "Sorry to interrupt, but we are in the middle of the training and we would like to use your training ground..."

At this Naruto laughed and Sakura smiled. Udon, Moegi and Hanabi were confused.

Konohamaru, on the other hand, started to sweat.

"Of course you do!" Sakura admitted. "That's why we're here for, right Ebisu-sensei?" she asked.

Ebisu smiled back and swinged his arm. A jingle was heard for a moment and died down as soon as both shinobi caught what Ebisu threw at them.

"No way!" Moegi exclaimed in panic.

Udon had his mouth open.

Hanabi blinked.

Konohamaru gritted his teeth. They had big problem now.

"So? Are you ready?" Sakura asked, putting on her famous gloves.

"Let's get this started!" Naruto shouted, kunai in his hand.

Everytime one of the two shinobi moved, the bells on their waists jingled in mockery.

(* * *)

**Sooo... here we have a formal introduction, Hiashi' bet, ****Moegi getting her ass kicked,** Hanabi acting like... well... arrogant Hyuuga prodigy, an announcement of the bell test and over 4000 words.

**So far the interactions between Hanabi and Konohamaru are close to zero and the next two chapters are mostly fighting chapters, so not very much chance for romance... but be patient.**

**Rate and review!  
**


	5. The bell test

**Back, as promised and thank you for your feedback!**

**I hope you are prepared for over 5000 words, because that's exactly what you have here.**

**I hope you'll like it!**

**Disclaimer: different chapter, same story.**

(* * *)

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Naruto asked, voice amused. "For us to run and hide? I don't run and straightforward hiding is really not my style!"

Konohamaru discreetly placed his hand on the ninja pouch on his waist.

Even he knew the gravity of the situation. Yes, he was a reckless loudmouth and would usually just charge right into the battle. But Naruto-niichan was just like him. He couldn't beat him at his own game. They needed to do this carefully and combine their forces.

He glanced to the side. The chances of four of them working together were low. Heck, even he, Moegi and Udon probably couldn't. They mostly just attacked together, with him trying to get the attention of the enemy. They were not really that good at planned teamwork. And as for Hanabi, he very much doubted she could fight alongside Udon, much alone him. Or Moegi.

This was bad.

"Hayakawa-sensei" Konohamaru was snapped out of his reverie when Hanabi spoke.

"Yes, Hanabi?"

"What happens if we can't get the bells?"

"Then you won't be ready to go for missions as a team" Ebisu explained. "You will continue this test until you get it right."

Hanabi frowned at that for a moment.

"I see I have no other choice. Very well then..."

She dropped into Hyuuga fighting stance.

"No hard feelings Uzumaki-san, Haruno-san" she activated her Byakugan. "I will be taking those bells. And you three" Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon perked at that. "Don't get in my way!"

"What?" Moegi barked. "Can you not understand the situation here? There's no time for that!"

"Moegi is right, Hanabi-san, you can't fight on your own."

"I already told you, I'm better off fighting on my own. That's my teamwork."

Moegi gritted her teeth, Udon blinked, Konohamaru growled, Ebisu facepalmed and Sakura didn't have any reaction whatsoever.

And Naruto just smiled. His eyes, literally sparkling with mirth.

"My, my. That's some big words" he started, making Hanabi focus on him. "Is it the official Hyuuga view or just your own? Either way, you wanna prove it, little girl? If you can, that is" he teased.

Not half a second later she was a foot away from him, stomping on the ground, balance shifting forward and her palm swishing through the air where he should have been.

But instead of hearing the sound of impacting flesh, all she could hear was the sound of the bells while he jumped into the air, landing on a tree branch.

"Do you really think I will be caught this easily? C'mon, you have to work for it."

She jumped after him, but he quickly hopped sideways to another branch. She bounced from the first tree and followed him, snapping the branch he was standing on with her Juuken.

Konohamaru cursed under his breath. What was she doing? He knew she was proud, but he also thought she was calm. Was it really this easy to rile her up with those insults? No matter how strong she was, she didn't stand a chance against a prankster like Naruto, not on her own.

"Kuso!" he exclaimed and then started to follow them through the trees.

"Konohamaru-kun!" Moegi shouted after him. She and Udon intended to run after him, but then they noticed a shadow beneath their feet.

"SHANNARO!"

The hair on the back of their necks stood up and they jumped back clumsily, just in time, as Sakura fell from the sky, her fist sinking into the ground.

The rustling of leaves, cries of frightened birds and even cracking of the earth were muffled by the booming explosion.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sakura asked through the dust and flying debris. "There's four of you and two of us, so why not play in pairs?"

She was standing in the center of ten feet wide and five feet deep crater, the cracks making it look like a scar on the face of the earth,

"I suggest we leave Naruto, Hanabi and Konohamaru to themselves and play on our own. Any objections?"

They had plenty, but neither of them was stupid enough to say it aloud.

(* * *)

"HAA!" Hanabi shouted, when Naruto backed up right into a tree trunk. She was sure she got him this time.

No such luck.

The blond shinobi jumped in place, turning in the air and sticking to the bark above with chakra.

"Tch" she thrust her palm upwards, but her hand was still two feet away from the target when Naruto detached from the tree and fell a little to her right. She reacted just in time in order to dodge a leg sweep. Not losing her cool, she rotated in the air and thrust with both palms as he stood up, hitting him right in the stomach.

Naruto flew into another tree and then fell to the ground.

"How's that?" she asked. She was a little out of breath, but remained calm. She couldn't lose focus until she had the bell in her hand and there was the other one.

"Not bad" she heard from behind her, she turned immediately.

The other Naruto landed on the branch, the bell jingling, a few trees away from her and casually leaned on the bark.

"Definitely better than what I could do when I was your age" he said smiling. "I was really a hot head. Much more than I am now, but I see you're not so bad yourself in this aspect."

Hanabi was flabbergasted once again.

"How is it possible?" she asked to no-one in particular, looking at both Narutos until...

Poof.

The one on the ground vanished.

"A shadow clone, of course" Naruto explained, smile widening.

"I know that!" she barked back at him. "I mean when did you create it? I've been monitoring your chakra network the whole time. Aside from the tree walking and quick jumps you didn't use your chakra at all!"

"Do you really expect me to reveal my secret? I'm your enemy, you know" he asked. "But for your information, I created it before the entire fight" he explained. "Of course I stayed outside of your Byakugan range. Fifty meters seem to be limit for you as well."

She bit her lip. His observation was correct. Still...

"How was I supposed to know that?"

"You didn't. Do you expect to always get full mission information during briefing? C'mon not even I was that naïve..."

"So you're saying that this is a mission and I am supposed to defeat you even under such circumstances?"

"Who knows?" he remarked, his cheek resting on his hand. "Maybe you're supposed to beat me?" he looked around. "Maybe you're supposed to get the bell however you can?" the said item jingled a little. "Maybe you're supposed to recognize your defeat and run while you still can" he wondered, then turned back at her, eyes sharp and no smile. "But you're not going to do that, right?" he smirked in a very feral way. "Oh and one piece of advice. You've been using much more chakra than me. And you have much less chakra than me to begin with. You might wanna use it a little more carefully."

He was right. She should use less chakra and more tools. And keep her best moves ready, waiting for the right time.

She reached into her pouch and threw three kunais.

Her opponent crouched and jumped to the side. She was about to move, but before she could do anything, she noticed a few shurikens with her Byakugan. Flying right at Naruto.

Said shinobi flinched a little, but managed to pull out a kunai and block the incoming projectiles. Then another kunai embedded itself into a tree a feet next to him.

Hanabi noticed, that the kunai had a burning paper tag attached to it.

A large explosion ensued.

She could see through the dust that Naruto jumped several meters in the air, sticking to the branch above, unscathed. She also could now see the other attacker.

Damn Sarutobi has followed her, of course, but she thought she'd lost him on the way. Guess he had found them.

A moment later Konohamaru landed good four feet away from her. Naruto jumped down from the tree. He was now facing both chuunins.

"Konohamaru!" Naruto beamed. "How nice of you to join the party!"

"Yeah" the boy answered, then turned to look at Hanabi. "Did you dispel the shadow clone, already?"

He noticed that she was mostly calm, but there were signs showing that she was on the edge.

"You knew he was a shadow clone?" she asked back.

"Of course. Sakura hit him so lightly back then. She didn't want to dispel the jutsu."

"How rude!" Naruto interrupted. "Sakura's my girlfriend, you know!" he explained with a little pout. "She just doesn't really want to hurt me. The shadow clone had nothing to do with this."

"Yeah, right..." Konohamaru rolled his eyes.

Hanabi had enough. Was it a fight or a chit-chat over coffee?

"I told you to not get in my way" she shot at Konohamaru, but he chuckled in response.

"I don't intend to, honest" he assured her.

She was surprised. Even Naruto furrowed his eyebrows.

"So you finally realized that you can't be of any help to me, is that it?" she asked, completely sure of herself.

"Hell no!" he shouted back. "Don't think I consider myself inferior to you or anything! I don't care how cool or important your clan is, assuming it is at all" he said.

She was shocked.

"You want to fight on your own? Fine by me!" he continued. "I don't think we would be able to beat Naruto even when fighting together."

He turned away from her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'll give you three minutes to fight him" he gestured towards Naruto. "After that I get my chance to defeat him."

He was very much risking her anger, but a part of her personality was similar to Moegi's and she was very proud. If his assumptions were right, then her answer should be...

"Fine! I'll just finish it in three minutes!"

He smiled to himself. Jackpot!

"Oi, oi" Naruto said gloomily, snapping their attention back to him. "Did you not hear what Konohamaru just said?" he asked, eyes boring into Hanabi.

She was about to lash out at him, but stopped when she saw Naruto crossing his fingers in his trademark handseal.

"I used to create thousands of shadow clones at once. You underestimate me, little girl" he said darkly.

Poof.

With the Byakugan Hanabi could see eleven sources of his chakra. That meant ten clones.

"You underestimate me greatly" the Naruto in the center said. "Three minutes or thirty minutes. You don't stand a chance either way."

And then ten Narutos charged at them.

(* * *)

"This is not good" Moegi stated the obvious through her laboured breathing.

"Yeah, tell me about it" Udon agreed, sporting a few cuts on his arms and one on his cheek. All done by flying debris alone.

They were sitting in a tree, deep in the forest, whispering quietly and looking away from each other, monitoring both directions.

They tried. They really did. They threw kunais and shurikens and even one exploding tag.

But to no avail.

Sakura was very good at dodging their attacks and understanding their movements. Still, they couldn't hit her even once.

Finally, they used one smoke bomb to escape.

"I don't get it" Moegi announced in a hushed whisper. "Sakura-senpai should have found us easily. It's as if she wanted for us to escape."

"Maybe she did" Udon whispered back.

"What do you mean?"

"Look, we still have quite a few exploding tags and smoke bombs. We could use the bunshin no jutsu or kawarimi, I could even prepare some genjutsu and you could use your summoning scrolls."

"That won't help us. You've seen how she'd been evading all of our attacks."

"That's exactly what I mean" he replied while leaning on the tree. "We don't stand a chance without Konohamaru. He can make very good diversions and he has the most jutsus of all of us. Hanabi included."

"Konohamaru-kun isn't here" Moegi reminded him. "He ran after Naruto and little Miss Perfect" she spat.

Udon wasn't exactly sure why Moegi was so harsh towards Hanabi. Yes, they had this little fight, but it was the fight that happened because of Moegi and Hanabi's attitude, no the other way around.

He might not be very fast or strong. But he was not stupid. He knew that Moegi nursed some feelings toward his other teammate. Not that he was happy about that, since he liked Moegi himself. Konohamaru didn't seem interested and her crush was just that – a crush. Still, he could understand her being wary of the Hyuuga kunoichi.

But so much jealousy and anger? From what he could see Konohamaru wasn't interested in Hanabi and Hanabi was definitely not interested in Konohamaru. Maybe it was some woman intuition thing?

He shouldn't be thinking about it know. They had other problems. Then again, Hanabi and Moegi cooperating with each other would solve a few.

"Yeah, I know, but that's just the thing. We need to find Konohamaru and then we can come up with a plan to attack Sakura" he explained.

"And then Naruto will just join Sakura-senpai. We can't beat her 2-on-1. What makes you think we can bet them 3-on-2?" she reminded him.

"Then we need to get Konohamaru to join us without Naruto joining Sakura. Maybe Hanabi can fend Naruto off for some time."

He went silent for a moment, listening for voices sounds them. Then he continued. "It's not much, but I think it's our best shot. We get Konohamaru and then come at Sakura with all we've got."

"I see" Moegi mulled it over for a second. "Alright, let's do this!"

"That's a sound plan" they flinched and simultaneously turned, only to see the pink-haired kunoichi sitting on their branch along with them. "But you shouldn't let your enemy hear it" she said smiling.

Damn, Konohamaru thought, tossing one of his smoke bombs and then threw several shurikens at where two of Naruto clones were standing. He succeeded and both clones disappeared.

He jumped quietly, aiming for a branch nearby.

He was close when he saw a silhouette in the smoke. A clone aiming for him with a kick. With no way to manoeuvre in mid-air, Konohamaru crossed his arms in front of his face in an attempt to block it.

The power of the kick hurled him into the ground. But he stood up quickly.

"Ouch!" he moaned. "No fair! How could you find me in the smoke?"

"Easy" the clone replied. "The clones pass their experiences back to the remaining clones when dispelled" he didn't know that. "You destroying one of my clones is like telling me where you are."

Well, that's convenient, Konohamaru thought.

"Why are you attacking me anyway? I said I'll wait until you defeat Hanabi."

"Oh c'mon, not you too" the clone groaned. "I'm your enemy, you now. I will attack you whenever I want to."

"If you say so" Konohamaru crossed his fingers as well. "Then I'm not going to hold back."

Meanwhile, Hanabi has been dodging attacks from three clones at once. The other two were just standing there, keeping their eyes on her, observing her every move.

She didn't like that. It felt like he was learning her fighting style, which was bad news for her. And dodging their attacks was becoming difficult.

Her battling style was based on quick and precise movements, flowing pirouettes, graceful steps and flowing attacks. Like a ballet.

But the clones tried to keep a safe distance. If this will go on, she will have to start blocking and then her dance will stop and she will lose.

She had to go all out. Now.

She threw her only smoke bomb into the ground. All clones, including the observing ones, reacted immediately. In half a second there was a dozen of sharp objects flying at her from all multiple directions.

But Hanabi was prepared. She jumped into the air and when at the peak of her jump, she threw two kunais in two completely different directions. Both of the clones she aimed at dodged them.

One kunai, however, had an exploding tag attached to it.

BOOM!

The poor clone disappeared and the explosion gave her even more place to hide. She took note of the positions of all remaining clones and then charged outside of the smoke.

In an instant three clones surrounded her from left, right and behind, getting closer.

Exactly where she wanted them.

Hakkeshou Kaiten, she thought while she started spinning, releasing her chakra all around her.

The clones were caught in her whirl and bounced away where they disappeared.

Hanabi quickly stopped her rotation and turned around on her heel, just in time to Juuken the last clone in the stomach.

She turned once again and faced the real Naruto, who was just about to punch her in the face.

But she was already in position for her divination.

"Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou!" she ducked under Naruto's fist. "Ni shou!" she plunged two fingers into his chakra points.

She shifted her position a little.

"Yon shou!" two more strikes.

Another shift.

"Hachi shou!" eight chakra points were closed now.

She turned in place, shifting all the time, dealing eight more strikes.

"Juuroku shou!"

Now was the problem. She could probably deal 32 strikes, but more? Her movements were slower than what they should have been. Her accuracy was not the best as well, she doubted she closed every tenketsu she aimed at.

And she probably couldn't continue beyond 32 points. 40 maybe. After that her stance would break. And beyond 45 she didn't really know what points to aim for.

How did cousin Neji do it so perfectly when he was twelve?

She stomped forward in order to shorten the distance to Naruto, who stumbled back. She will close 16 more tenkestsus and then she would stop. That should be enough.

She aimed for Naruto's chakra pathway and stroke.

One, two, free, four. That's 20.

Jab! Thud! Slam! Thunk! 24.

Next was aimed slightly above his lung, another directly in the liver and the next one wa-

She stopped abruptly, stumbling a little and then she noticed that he managed to grasp her right hand.

Before she could question the possibility of it happening, she felt a strong tug and started to fall down.

Straight into Naruto's raising knee.

The power of the blow forced the air out of her lungs, making her mind dizzy. So dizzy, that the next strike was feeling much lighter, but must have been just as strong, seeing as it made her fly several meters back, kicking a cloud of dust.

"Well, that was refreshing" she heard him speak.

The pain in her gut was killing her, making it difficult to stand up.

"I'll admit, that jutsu is very powerful weapon for a chuunin. You can beat most enemies, no matter how much they train" he told her. "And you can fend off multiple foes with your kaiten. But..." ohh... the dreaded "but" statement.

"But are those skills the reason you are a chuunin? No... those are the skills of a genin. The chuunins are those who command you to use them. Don't get me wrong..." she was now standing, clutching her stomach, steady enough to look at him. "Your tactical skills are not so bad... but you cannot beat me on your own. Maybe you should try to use the skills of your allies a little more?"

"Shut up!" she breathed out. "If it was perfected, then you wouldn't be standing anymore! That's the Konoha strongest taijutsu!"

Naruto frowned at that.

"I received this jutsu once and stood up" she blinked, remembering watching him fight cousin Neji. "And as for this being the Konoha's strongest taijutsu... I disagree."

"What?"

"You don't believe me, do you?" he smirked. "Then I will show you something good."

He closed his eyes. That was good moment to strike, even if she was weakened. She reached for her pouch, but before she could pull out a single shuriken, her eyes noticed something weird.

The space around Naruto, the earth, the air, the trees, started to move. It was like watching the ground on a sunny day. The air started to wave and curl in bizarre ways. And then all of this flow started to move towards Naruto.

It wasn't chakra, her eyes gave it no colour, but she was sure she wouldn't be able to see it without her Byakugan activated. What was that?

She kept watching, secretly fascinated, as the coils started to mix with Naruto's chakra. Exactly as if he was moulding chakra.

Then she saw a flash and new chakra flared inside Naruto. It was definitely chakra, as it was coloured, but it was a colour she has never seen before and couldn't name it. It looked as if the colour changed while it was flowing. And it was bright. Well, maybe bright was not the correct word, but it made her squint her eyes, like she was forced to shield from the blinding sun.

And then the brightness faded. The strange chakra washed over Naruto's chakra network, even through the few parts that she supposedly closed with her attack. Naruto opened his eyes.

She gasped.

They were very different. They were now orange, almost yellow in colour, instead of their usual clear blue. The pupils also changed, resembling horizontal rectangles. The skin around they eyes was orange as well. His eyes reminded Hanabi of something.

"This is Sage mode, I learned it from the toads on the Myoubokuzan" that's right! His eyes were just like those of a toad! A little gross though...

Naruto didn't say it, but she could feel that this skill was something rare, unique even. Somehow she could now understand why he was respected so much. He was standing there, silent and firm. His whole form radiating power, that she could feel even with her eyes closed. His eyes were serious and determined.

Hanabi would never admit it aloud, but something stirred inside of her as her fear raised its ugly head. He was not producing any killer intent, yet she was afraid.

"And this" Naruto dropped into fighting stance. "Is Frog Kumite!" he charged at her.

She was still in pain and afraid, but her pride forced her to keep fighting. She lunged, attacking him with her Juuken.

It took her several seconds to notice that something was wrong.

She couldn't hit him and it was different from before. Her attacks were missing by a hair's breadth, doing no damage. He was dancing fluidly and she realized some of his moves should put him in a losing position, but they didn't. It shouldn't be possible unless...

Was he predicting her attacks? That was absurd! How could he possibly do that?

He didn't attack her, not once. And the peculiar chakra was now filling not just his chakra network, but his entire body and more and more of this strange energy was flowing into him.

Then, when she was already used to him dodging, he threw a simple punch. She dodged it out of habit, his attack missing her side by several inches.

She was about to take advantage of that, when suddenly, the strange chakra flowed out of him, surrounding him like a human-shaped coat.

And reaching her.

She felt a strong blow, stronger than before and she was thrown back, hitting the ground and rolling until she slammed back-first into a tree.

Naruto patiently waited for her to stand up. She managed to do it after a while, but she needed to lean on the tree in order to do so.

"From your face I can see you have no idea what just happened" she didn't deny, even though she very much wanted to.

"This thing, the Sage mode, allows me to gather the natural energy from my surroundings" despite all her pain and humiliation, she listened intently.

"When you add this natural energy to the stamina and spiritual energy, you get senjutsu chakra instead of regular chakra. In this form my speed and strength rise. I can even rest instead of getting tired, because I keep absorbing energy from the outside, instead of using energy from my body."

She bit her lip, but the curiosity won. "How did you dodge all of my attacks?"

"Well, I believe that's the difference between the Byakugan and the Sharingan" her brows furrowed. What that had to do with this?

He obviously saw her confusion.

"What I mean is that the Byakugan allows you to see more, but you need to understand what you see yourself. On the other hand, Sharingan cannot see through walls, but it allows the body and the mind to interpret what is sees. It allows you to follow the enemy's movements even at high speed. It means you can read his handseals and body movements, reacting to his muscles twitching as soon as they happen. This is not fortune-telling, but comes in handy."

She blinked.

"That's what you did?"

"No, I don't have the Sharingan" he replied. "But the Sage mode allows me to feel chakra and its patterns. Since your Juuken requires you injecting chakra into enemy body, it is quite easily dodged. And even if you hit, I doubt you would be able to get past my Sage mode with this little chakra."

"That's not fair!" she complained, her pride momentarily forgotten in an effort to find a valid excuse. "How am I supposed to match the strength of such powerful shinobi as you?"

To her surprise Naruto laughed.

At first she was angered, but then she realized that he wasn't laughing at her. His laughter was... warm...

He deactivated his Sage mode.

"You're funny" he said when he finally composed himself. "You treat me as some hero that needs proper respect. Like some noble or something like that."

She blinked again.

"And why wouldn't I?" she shot back. "You're the hero of Konoha, the son of the Fourth Hokage and a member of the Uzumaki clan!"

"You're wrong" he answered, his sad tone making her stop. He approached her and when he was three feet away he sat on the ground, gesturing for her to do the same.

She hesitated, but she was tired already, so she plumped down on the grass.

"It's true what you said, but I didn't know about any of it till I was sixteen" he began. "I was loud, obnoxious, stupid idiotic knucklehead. I still am." her eyes widened in disbelief. "Konohamaru is very much like me, but probably a little smarter" he smiled to himself.

"During my academy years I was a dead last. A dropout. I sucked at most jutsus, especially the bunshin no jutsu" impossible! From what she heard, the kage bunshin was his favourite technique!

"I was nothing like the Akimichis, Inuzukas, Yamanakas, Aburames or Naras. And, of course, I was nowhere near the last remaining Uchiha or the Hyuugas."

She listened to every word, looking into his sad blue eyes.

"I had no parents or friends, so I pulled pranks in order to get the attention of others. I wanted to become Hokage in order to get recognized by everyone. And above all of that I was the Jinchuuriki of Kurama."

Hanabi was confused. Naruto saw this.

"Kurama is better known as the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, one of the nine Bijuu. And the Jinchuuriki are humans with Bijuu sealed inside of them, the tools of war that die once you remove the Bijuu from them. It made my life a hell of loneliness, that is until I met people precious to me."

She was speechless. She didn't know much about it, but she recalled her father telling her about the last war.

Naruto seemed to read her mind.

"But it's over now. The Kurama and the other Bijuus are free now and there are no more Jinchuuriki. And I'm alive as you can see" he smiled, his hand scratching his neck. "When I got stronger I realized that I have many people precious to me and now I want to become Hokage in order to protect them."

He paused for a moment.

"But I still remember fighting against the fate with your cousin" she perked at that. "And I managed to beat him, despite him being a genius and me being a dropout."

Another pause.

"What I mean is... it doesn't matter whether you are a Hyuuga, an Aburame or some common shinobi. The bloodline limits are not everything. There are so many skills out there, all things I used to fight you are not bloodline limits, though you could say the Sage mode and the vast amount of chakra are very rare. The point is, your teammates possess many skills you don't and your teammates will save your ass. More than once probably. And your ass will be a lot easier to save if you will be a good teammate."

She dropped her head, a well-known feeling gushing inside of her, eating at her. She never have guessed she would be feeling this one particular feeling now.

Shame.

"The fact that you lost to me probably hurt your pride, but look on it that way" she perked, confused. "You are the first Hyuuga to witness the Sage mode so close and have it explained to you. Therefore, you could fight me better than anybody in your clan, maybe even better than Hinata" the mentioning of her sister didn't have as much impact as she though it would have. "The way we learn is always hard, but you're used to learning by winning. I say learning by losing is much more efficient. Actually I don't think you lost at all. I'm sure your sensei will be proud of you."

She remembered how Ebisu-sensei praised her for her lame introduction. Could, could it be better than she'd thought?

"I know it's not easy, but you will have to work on it, so just promi-" he stopped abruptly and stood up, turning. Hanabi was confused, but a moment later she heard the rustling of leaves and saw a figure coming out for the bushes in front of them.

"So, I guess the three minute time limit is over, right?" Konohamaru announced, kunai in his hand.

(* * *)

**So... mainly a battle chapter. Also it might seem like a little Naruto x Hanabi, but fear not – that serves only to point out Hanabi's mistakes for her. Let's hope she will get better at teamwork.**

**Or will she...?**

**To find out you will have to read the next chapter which, sadly, might take a while to post as I am short on finished chapters at the moment :/**

**However, your feedback (reviews, follows and so on) can motivate me for earlier updates, so... read, rate and review!  
**


	6. The second chance

**Hello to all my readers. After more-than-a-week pause I am back with the next chapter of Flowers of Trees!**

**Without further ado, here goes the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I'm running out of things to put here...**

(* * *)

Naruto regarded Konohamaru for a moment and then sighed.

"You know well enough that you can't beat me on your own" he started. "Your teammate is unable to fight at the moment and it's your fault."

"Of course!" Konohamaru shouted back to Hanabi's surprise.

"That's really bad way to treat you teammates, you know that?" Naruto asked, a little more serious.

"I don't think so" Konohamaru shot back. "I knew we couldn't defeat you and Sakura from the beginning" he explained. "I think we couldn't beat you two even if the four of us were working together. We will get the bells some other time."

Naruto furrowed his brows. "So why do you still want to fight, when you cannot win?"

"Isn't it obvious, niichan?" he asked. "My dream is to defeat you! I will take any chance to train fighting you!"

At this moment Hanabi remembered the introductions and Konohamaru's dream. She also remembered what Naruto told her a few minutes ago. She realized that Konohamaru recognized their defeat as a team and choose to take this opportunity to get closer to his own dream.

To her the idea was strange at best, but Naruto only chuckled, then dropped into fighting stance.

"Very well!" he said. "What're you waiting for? Move!"

Konohamaru smirked.

"Already have."

Hanabi had her Byakugan deactivated, still she noticed movement above them. She turned her head just in time to see a number of shurikens flying at Naruto.

The orange-clad shinobi jumped and somersaulted back, avoiding the damage. Just as he landed two Konohamarus fell from above with kunais in hand.

Naruto dodged first attack by leaning back, touching the ground with his hands and then kicking one of his enemies in the stomach with both legs, then he moved on his hands, shifting them around, turning himself im place and managing to kick the other one in the face.

Both Konohamarus disappeared in clouds of white smoke.

"Is that everything you've got?" he asked, not looking surprised at all.

Hanabi on the other hand was surprised. Shadow clones? This was a jounin-level skill. Konohamaru couldn't have possible done this.

Right?

She looked at the young Sarutobi and, as on cue, he crossed his fingers in a familiar handseal.

Poof.

Another Konohamaru appeared beside him.

Not believing this, Hanabi activated her Byakugan, but it was true. It was no regular bunshin, but a true shadow clone – Konohomaru's chakra was equally divided between both him and his replication.

This idiot could do such a technique?

"Is that what you think, niichan?" the boy said in reply to Naruto's question. "Then watch this!"

Konohamaru extended his arm to the side, where his clone stood. Not a second later a considerable amount of chakra started to gather at his palm and the clone started to sort of... claw and tug at this chakra. This seemed ridiculous, but then...

The chakra started to flow in multiple directions as it was being guided by Konohamaru. In matter of seconds she saw a completely random hurricane of chakra that was flying everywhere.

It looked completely wild and untamed, until the chakra started to subside. At first she thought that Konohamaru got tired and released the jutsu, but no. He was simply compressing it, all of this wild spinning chakra was now closed in a sphere the size of his fist.

The chakra was so intense... She was almost sure... She deactivated her Byakugan and her eyes widened. She was right! The chakra was clearly visible even now! She could feel shivers going down her spine – this technique was dangerous... and beautiful. She was entranced by the untamed energy in Konohamaru's hands, the multiple chakra strands clearly chaotic, but undeniably harmonious at the same time.

"Ready, or not, here I come!" the boy and his clone charged at Naruto.

Naruto dashed back at them. Were they crazy? Were they trying to really kill each other?

The clone marched forward, but disappeared when Naruto threw three shurikens at it almost from point blank range. Konohamaru just smirked and thrust his hand with this flashy jutsu right into Naruto.

At least that was what he intended. But Naruto crouched just a little and low kicked him, throwing him off-balance.

"Whaa..." Konohamaru yelled and the jutsu in his hand started to disperse, hitting the ground and kicking a cloud of dust into the air.

One moment and one kick later Konohamaru shot out of the dust and fell to the ground, groaning painfully.

Hanabi was disappointed. This jutsu looked interesting, but all it did was make some swirl-like pattern in the dirt.

Useless. She should have known.

"I thought you would be wiser than to use the rasengan out in the open, you should do some diversion first."

Konohamaru only smiled back.

"That exactly what I did" he said... and disappeared with a poof.

Hanabi was surprised and then... and then she felt the same chakra pressure as before, but above her... and stronger.

She looked up just to see another pair of Konohamarus above Naruto. The same jutsu, but now bigger than her head, in between them.

"Shit!" Naruto cursed, gathering chakra in his legs.

"Oodama rasengan!" both Konohamarus yelled.

And then the jutsu hit the ground.

There was a strange, high-pitched sound and then white and blueish light flashed, making Hanabi squint her eyes.

She was about to open them to see what was happening, but then the sound turned into a low and loud rumble, the light intensified, flashing through her closed eyelids and a gust of wind hit her face. She turned her head trying to shield herself from the dirt, leaves and small stones.

A few seconds later the pressure subsided and the rumble was reduced to a quiet unnatural growl. Hanabi let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She then turned her head back and opened her eyes, gasping.

The first thing she saw were leaves floating in all directions, up and down included, in a cloud of dust. The whole place looked like a strong wind blew through it, which it did.

Naruto was standing a good dozen of meters from her, his clothes a little torn, but otherwise unharmed. He was looking at the center of the damage zone, as did she.

In the center there was space roughly ten by ten feet wide, where even the ground was not resistant enough. She saw roots torn out from the ground and rocks half-lifted to the surface. The spot was also surprisingly clean, devoid of all loose material that was currently flying in all directions.

But the reason for her gasp was a small hole in the ground, not larger than three by three feet. What surprised her, was that this hole was almost a perfect circle, cleanly cutting through dirt, wood and even stone, an example of a surgical precision amidst a total chaos.

How could this jutsu explode in such a way? And where was Konohamaru?

A second later the said boy simply jumped out from the hole, landing on his feet with some difficulty, his breath laboured.

She blinked. How could he fit in such a small hole? She didn't see him at all! She activated her Byakugan once more and looked at the hole.

And then she understood.

The hole was, in fact, a six or seven feet deep tunnel. The jutsu didn't just explode, it drilled and ate through the earth. The tunnel connected to a much larger chamber where the chakra hurricane actually exploded, creating a torn out nightmare underground.

Konohamaru saw the destruction he's done and started to scratch the back of his head.

"Hehehehe" he laughed nervously.

That idiot! He had the nerve to laugh after causing such a dangerous situation! He won't be laughing when Naruto will scold him.

"That's my student!" Naruto announced.

Huh?

"You're getting stronger, Konohamaru! You have fully mastered the Yondaime's jutsu!"

If it could, her mouth would have hit the ground.

"What? Yondaime Hokage used this jutsu?" she asked and, to her surprise, Konohamaru did too.

Naruto looked at them bankly.

"Sure he did!" he replied, surprised by their shock. "He invented it by copying the unique attack all the Bijuus use – the Bijuu dama."

"I haven't seen anybody in the village use this jutsu!" she defended.

"Of course you haven't!" Naruto rolled his eyes. "Only me, the Yondaime, Ero-sennin, Kakashi-sensei and Konohamaru knew how to do it!"

"Ero-sennin?" she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Ahh... That's how I call him... His real name was Jiraiya, the Legendary Sannin."

"Jiraiya?" she asked back. "THE Jiraiya?" anger shot through her. "How can you call him something like 'Ero-sennin'?"

Konohomaru chuckled. "Cause he was a perverted old man!" he said.

She looked at him with disgust. "He was not just some perverted old man!"

"Of course not!" Naruto said, laughing. "He was an open super pervert and author of the Icha Icha series!" he paused for a moment. "But he was also the toad sage of the Myoubokuzan, he taught me the rasengan. He was also my godfather and gave my name" Naruto was completely serious by now. "And he died to protect the village and its future!"

She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find any words, torn between shock, admiration and compassion. She was still weakened, but it seemed that her body was faring much better than her mind, which was currently flowing with so much information, most of which was completely unbelievable.

"So, what I have to learn next, niichan?" Konohamaru asked, pumped up, despite his exhaustion.

"Next, you have to develop your own techniques and stop depending on me" Naruto said. "Find your own fighting style that suits you the best."

Konohamaru widened his eyes.

"No way! I'll master whatever you will master, Naruto-niichan!"

Naruto chuckled. "Then I will show you a jutsu you can't master."

"Huh?"

Hanabi watched as Naruto eyes once again turned yellow and orange. He entered the Sage mode.

Then he made two shadow clones.

"Watch carefully Konohamaru, this jutsu requires both a wind-element chakra nature and a Sage mode in order to perform properly."

This time Hanabi did not hesitate at all and activated her Byakugan immediately.

Naruto created the rasengan and then started to manipulate its chakra. What she saw was a small shuriken-shaped spinning chakra around the center. It looked rather unimpressive until...

"What the hell is this?" Konohamaru asked, his hands on his ears.

She could hear it as well. This technique emitted loud, screeching noises that made her ears ring. She could also feel the ground and the tree behind her shaking.

"This" Naruto announced proudly. "Is the Rasen shuriken!"

The jutsu was now larger than Naruto himself, really looking like a giant shuriken. She focused her eyesight to see better. And gasped.

"I think this jutsu is composed of thousands of smaller chakra objects" she said excitedly to no-one in particular.

"Millions actually" Naruto corrected. "Those needle-shaped blades are so small that they would go through you're body and destroy every single chakra connection in your body."

She was speechless. Did he mean the chakra connections to individual cells? Even she couldn't see them, not yet anyway!

"Well then. Here it goes!" he said and then... he threw it.

Konohamaru and Hanabi both jumped back, fear in their eyes, watching as the chakra projectile passed them by and flew off into trees.

The Rasen shuriken cut a few trees that stood in its path and then expanded, violently grinding everything in its range, screeching all the time.

Konohamaru and Hanabi watched flabbergasted for several seconds. Then the boy seemed to wake up from his stupor and turned to Naruto with an angry expression.

"What do you think you're doing?" he shouted. "That was dangerous, what if it really hit us?!"

Hanabi blinked. She approached him and snapped at him.

"So now you worry about someone being hit, huh? And you doing that dangerous rasen-something jutsu was okay, is that what you wanted to say?" she accused.

He looked at her strangely, as if seeing her for the first time in his life and then he blushed, clearly embarrassed.

"S-shut up!" he spat, surprising her by stepping closer to her, so their faces were a mere foot away. "You were fighting Naruto-niichan with an intention to kill, you're the same!"

He still called Naruto "niichan". He might be a tiny little bit better than she assumed, but he wasn't allowed to do that. Or accuse her. And especially come this close to her.

"I had everything under control!" she answered, hands on her hips, dangerous scowl on her face. She leaned even closer to him, refusing to step back.

"Yeah, right..." he rolled his eyes, completely unaffected by her actions, embarrassed face already gone, replaced with that of irritation.

She narrowed her eyes and hissed quietly and he just gritted his teeth and growled in response.

"Umm... guys..." Naruto interjected.

"What?" they both hollered turning their heads to him.

WHAM!

Both chuunins hit the ground face-first, completely unconscious.

(* * *)

"...can you say that? You didn't get your bell!" she heard someone speaking in an unnaturally muffled voice. Was it a girl?

"Oi oi, look who's talking! Take a look at yourselves, you were utterly defeated!" a second voice, this one was muffled as well, but much louder. A boy?

"And that's makes you better?" the first voice questioned, clearly angered.

"Of course! I didn't delude myself with any hope of victory and at least my defeat was awesome!" the first voice replied, obviously proud.

"There is no such thing as awesome defeat" a third voice. This one was much calmer, but less familiar.

The voices were getting louder and clearer.

"Sure there is!" the proud one countered back.

"Stop this bickering, you two" another, somewhat cowardly voice interjected.

Her vision started to return, accompanied by a dull pain.

"Ouch!"

"Hey, she's waking up" one voice said, she couldn't tell which one, though.

Hanabi opened her eyes.

And first thing she saw was the face of one Haruno Sakura.

"Are you feeling alright?" the medic-nin asked, a hint of worry in her voice. That voice was the calm one.

She nodded weakly, although not one bit sure of her answer.

"Course she is!" her vision was invaded by Konohamaru, the owner of the loud voice.

Obviously.

They were still on the training grounds. From her vision she realized she must have been standing, which was weird. She was supposed to be unconscious after Naruto hit her and Konohamaru. And from the conversation she heard it was safe to assume they failed to get the bells.

She noticed Moegi and Udon, two last voices she heard, as well as Naruto and her sensei, Ebisu standing or sitting in front of her.

Looking at her.

All of them.

She felt a feeling in her gut again. Something between shame and embarrassment.

Were they worried about her?

The feeling transformed into anger. She could take care of herself!

"I'm fine!" she insisted and then tried to move only to find out that she couldn't as her waist seemed restrained.

She heard a snigger that could only belong to Moegi.

What the hell, she thought. She looked down.

She was tied.

"What is this?" she asked. Why was she tied? And tied to what exactly? She turned around.

And gaped.

She was tied to one of the three stakes.

At this point, she began to panic.

"What's going on?" she asked, half furious and half terrified.

"Calm down, Hanabi" Ebisu said, lifting his glasses with his finger.

'Calm down?' she thought. 'I will show you calm down. Wait till I tell my father' she promised in her mind.

"Why am I tied like this?" she asked again.

"Simple" Moegi answered, smiling. "We failed to complete the bell test and the worst performing student always ends up tied-"

"Moegi-chan..." Naruto interrupted her, boring eyes into her. "That's rude!"

Sakura turned to Naruto. "And since when do you know what's rude and what's not?"

Naruto frowned at her. "What you just said – that's rude" he countered. "Even someone like me could learn some manners after spending so much time with you!"

"Hmpf! You got that right! Seems my manners have finally rubbed off on you" Sakura answered back.

"I don't think it was your manners Sakura-senpai" Konohamaru said quietly, his gaze focused on her gloves.

"What was that?" Sakura turned to him.

"Nothing!" Konohamaru lifted his hands in defence, smiling. "I said nothing!"

'Liar' everyone else thought.

"Whatever" Sakura ended the discussion. "Moegi" the said girl turned to look at her. "The fact that somebody ends up tied to a stake does not mean he or she is, or will be, the weakest in the group!"

"Haa?" Moegi answered. "You just say so."

"It's true. I was the weakest one when we had this test with Kakashi-sensei. Do you know who ended up tied to the stake?"

"Umm..." Moegi hesitated. "You?"

"It was me" Naruto said, smiling.

Everyone, except for Sakura and Ebisu, turned to look at him, agape.

"You, Naruto-niichan?" Konohamaru asked shocked.

"Yeah."

"Why am I not surprised" Ebisu commented, followed by a chuckle from Sakura.

"And do you know who else ended up being tied?" Naruto paused for a moment. "Ero-sen-... I mean Jiraiya."

At this even Sakura and Ebisu blinked.

"I did not know that" the pink-haired kunoichi admitted.

"Maybe only the great shinobi end up tied to the stake?" Ebisu wondered aloud.

That's better, Hanabi thought.

"More like, all perverts end up being tied" Konohomaru said, looking at the Hyuuga girl with a smirk.

Hanabi's hands were tied. But not her legs.

WHACK!

"Ouch!" Konohomaru stepped back holding his shin.

"What was that for?"

THUD!

The Sarutobi boy, tears in his eyes, held the top of his head where Moegi just punched him.

"Maybe it's you who needs to be tied then" she commented angrily.

Konohamaru couldn't find any answer, so he just glared back at his teammate.

Hanabi frowned. Konohamaru just called her a... a pervert. But why did Moegi hit him for that? Why would she defend her? She clearly didn't like her!

"Now, calm down everyone!" Sakura commanded. "Hanabi is the one tied to the stake, because she was the first to leave the team and jeopardize the mission!"

"Told you so" Moegi remarked.

"You weren't much better" Sakura scolded Moegi. "You and Udon had better teamwork and better plan of action, but without Konohamaru you were just waiting for your defeat!" she continued. "I don't understand why Tsunade-shishou put you three in one team. You need to learn how to fight without Konohamaru!"

"Surprisingly" Naruto interjected. "Our little Konohamaru was the only one who both, realized his situation and managed to fight back" he praised.

Konohamaru laughed with his hand scratching his neck.

"But that was because he knows me... and he still has lost" the smug look disappeared from Konohamaru's face.

"Well, I believe that concludes our little test" Ebisu said. "We will try another week, after we train on your teamwork. No, let's-"

"Wait a moment" Naruto stopped him, smiling. "I think we should give our little fellows a second chance."

"What?" six voices asked at once.

"What do you mean?" Sakura inquired. "They clearly couldn't beat us on their own, much alone as a team" she noticed.

"All I'm saying" Naruto started explaining. "Is that they didn't have chance to come up with some plan as a team" he winked at the four chuunins. "Now what we have here... Konohamaru and Hanabi are both first-line fighters with considerable jutsus. Hanabi can protect herself with her Kaiten and Konohamaru can create diversions with his shadow clones" he remarked. "And they both can use their techniques for scouting."

"As for Moegi and Udon..." Naruto turned to the said pair. "They are more like a support team. Udon can come up with some stable plan of action and support the front line with some genjutsu, while Moegi can attack from the distance and do some healing, am I right?"

The girl and boy in question both nodded, somewhat hesitantly.

"I say, we reverse the rules" Naruto suggested. "They'll try to ambush us, but we will assume that we don't know about their attack. If they manage to get both bells, they pass."

Sakura opened her mouth to protest, but was stopped by Ebisu.

"I don't think they will pass, but I don't mind giving them another chance. This will be a good exercise" he commented with a tone of finality then turned to the chuunins. "If you retrieve the bells till, say... 9 o'clock you pass. Okay, let's go" he said and disappeared in a poof of smoke, quickly followed by Naruto and Sakura.

When they were far enough Sakura spoke.

"Do you seriously think they can get the bells in a little more than an hour?"

"Naah..." Naruto replied. "Still, that will help their teamwork for sure!"

(* * *)

Back at the glade the four chuunins stood, confused. Konohamaru was the first on to break the silence.

"Lucky!" he announced. "We can still win this!"

"Huh" Udon looked at him surprised. "Didn't you say before that we can't beat them even while fighting together?"

"Yeah, but that was with them attacking us head-on!" he said back. "Now it is us who decide on the time and the place. We just need to take the initiative, the initiative!"

He moved behind Hanabi.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm untying the rope" he replied. "Do you mind?"

"I can cut it with my chakra, it will be faster" she answered, but before she could tell him to move back, the ties loosened and she was free.

"Huh?"

"If we are to work together" Konohamaru started. "You have to trust me a little more."

She turned to see the rope in his hands, already untied.

"How did you..."

"This?" he asked. "It's a jutsu for untying ropes. They teach this in the Ninja academy. Basic stuff" he explained.

Hanabi never attended the Ninja academy except for the final exam. Her father taught her to destroy ropes with precise chakra bursts.

For some reason she didn't want them to know that she hadn't attended the academy. Fortunately for her, Konohamaru didn't question her further.

He just looked at the rope in his hands and smiled.

"The rope is in one piece, that's some 10 meters" he remarked. "We can actually use this!"

"Huh?" she asked. "Use what?" she looked at the object in his hands. "You mean the rope?" she has never even as much as considered that.

"Of course!" he grinned. "That's not your usual ninja combat tool, right? We'll surprise them!"

"Whoa, whoa" Moegi interrupted them. "Are we actually going to do this? The four of us?"

For some reason her question hit the mark, as each one of them went silent for a moment.

"Yeah..." Konohamaru replied at last. "We can make some good plan. Naruto-niichan actually described most of it for us. You and Udon" he pointed to the brown-haired chuunin are going to support us with some genjutsu and ranged attacks and the two of us" Konohamaru gestured in the general direction of Hanabi. "Will fight them directly."

"All we need is a solid plan that ALL of us will follow to the letter."

"That means that... that Hanabi-san" it was clear that it wasn't easy for Moegi to refer to the Hyuuga by her name. "Will have to follow this plan as well."

Hanabi blinked. True, Uzumaki-san was much more powerful than her and probably so was Haruno-san. She could admit that.

Her own father was more powerful than her and she had to deal with his superiority on a daily manner. No big deal.

She could admit that the Sarutobi would be helpful and not only for distracting the enemy.

But admitting that she needed the help of the other two?

Still she needed their help and if they passed then she would be able to do ninja mission without other Hyuugas to annoy her.

This was worth a try.

She bowed.

"I will be honoured to have your help..." she hesitated trying to remember their introductions. "Sobaya-san, Hatsuko-san."

Moegi opened her mouth in shock and Udon actually smiled at her.

Konohamaru, however, was not satisfied.

"That won't do" he informed her. "We cannot win if we are Hyuuga, Hatsuko, Sobaya and Sarutobi." he told them. "We need to act as a team that trusts each other, therefore we should call ourselves with our proper names!"

"I know!" Udon interrupted. "Let's do the same thing that we did when we formed the Konohamaru Corps!"

The boy extended his hand, palm facing the ground.

"Udon!"

Hanabi furrowed her brows, not understanding what he was doing.

Moegi dispelled her confusion, by putting her hand of top of Udon's.

"Moegi!"

The Sarutobi boy added his hand on top of those of his teammates.

"Konohamaru!"

They all looked expectantly at her and under their gaze she felt nervous for some reason.

'This is ridiculous' she thought, but slowly, she extended her hand and placed it on top of Konohamaru's.

"Hanabi!"

Then she saw them smiling. Moegi and Konohamaru looked a little uncomfortable for reasons she did not understand, but they were smiling at her.

"Hehe!" Konohamaru scratched the back of his head. "I guess this means the end of the Konohomaru Corps and the beginning of the new Team Ebisu, right?" he asked beaming, looking at all three of them.

Moegi and Udon smiled right back at him.

Hanabi looked at Konohamaru. At this moment she noticed that his toothy grin was similar to Naruto's, but also different and unique at the same time.

She also noticed that her hand felt weird on top of his, though she couldn't exactly place the feeling.

She didn't, however, notice her own lips curling up into a small smile and a quiet gasp from Konohamaru that followed.

(* * *)

**In the end this chapter was not as much battle-oriented as I thought, but the next one will be!**

**Also, I am quite aware that smart, calm and explaining Naruto seems out-of-character, but our little Hanabi needs a proper teacher and Naruto just happened to be there.**

**I'm really happy with the ending scene, some seeds of KonoHana are there at last. ****Next chapter will have another one of those.** Had to make up the forming of Konohamaru Corps, though. Glad it was worth it.  


**"Hanabi wakes up tied to a stake" scene is my second favourite and I hope you will appreciate it as much as I do ;)**

**The reviews activity decreased, which can negatively impact the frequency of updates, so I strongly encourage you to drop me a review whether you like where this is going or not.  
**

**Review and stay tuned for future developments!**


	7. The test concludes

**Hello, everyone!**

**I'm back with the 7th (and a little shorter) chapter of Flowers of Trees!  
**

**First, I would like to kindly you for your reviews and take this chance to reply to some of them:  
**

** 1. ZelgadisGW: My favourite scene from the last chapter was the ending scene aka "Team Ebisu is formed and Hanabi smiles" ;)  
**

**2. Eto117: I agree, Hanabi needs to open up, but it might take a while (****I mean** in number of words -.-'). The same goes for Udon and Moegi – this will not happen until we reach a certain (a little distant) phase in the story. As for Konohamaru keeping his perverted nature in check... I wouldn't count on that xD. And, unfortunately, I don't understand your Frozen reference. Sorry.

**Okay, now onto the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: last time I checked, Naruto was owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.  
**

(* * *)

Naruto yawned, bored out of his mind.

He was leaning on some tree in the middle of the forest. Ebisu was sitting on a rock a few meters away from him. If he was bored as well, he didn't let it know.

Sakura was sitting on a branch high above them. Hidden by the leaves she observed the terrain around them.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined, trying to get her attention.

He was rewarded with a shuriken that grazed his cheek.

"Be quiet, idiot!" she scolded him not so quiet herself. "You will give away our location!"

"That's the point" the blond replied. "We let them surprise us, remember?"

"Hmpf, I never agreed to that!" was her response. "If you want to give them a handicap maybe you should go to sleep or create some smoke."

"No" he replied lazily. "I don't want to miss anything or waste any chakra and tools.

"Then you could, I don't know, carve hints on trees or give them fire signals."

"Don't be silly Sakura-chan, you almost seem afraid of them."

"What?" she hollered back at him, making Ebisu furrow his brows. "You can't be serious!"

"Oi, oi" he answered back. "If you shout like that they are going to find us for sure!"

That seemed to shut her up, although he was sure he would regret it later.

They were staying like that for another five minutes when they all heard a faint rustling from the trees nearby.

In an instant, Sakura and Naruto had shurikens in their hands and Ebisu stood up. They all turned in the direction of the sound.

A few seconds passed, but nothing happened.

"Come out!" Sakura shouted.

Silence.

"We all heard you!" Naruto announced.

Nothing.

"Maybe it wasn't them" Sakura mused after a moment.

"There!" Naruto threw three shurikens when he noticed some movement behind the trees.

The said projectiles swished through the air and landed with a series of soft thunks.

"Did I get them?" Naruto wondered aloud.

He was answered by a rain of kunais.

"What the..." he shouted and jumped backwards, at least half a dozen knives embedded themselves into the trunk near him.

Sakura gracefully jumped down from her branch and landed next to Naruto. Both shinobi were now back-to-back, ready to intercept attacks from the front and behind.

The attack came from the side.

Konohamaru and Hanabi emerged from the bushes and charged at them.

"All right, bring it on!" Naruto shouted while throwing another barrage of shurikens at them.

Sakura supported him with a few kunais, aiming for the spots where she expected them to dodge Naruto's attack.

Konohamaru and Hanabi avoided and deflected their attacks, but Sakura noticed that they did it somewhat sloppy. Especially Hanabi.

Before she could ponder on it some more, another hail of kunais fell from the sky. That one was well-aimed, forcing her and Naruto to separate.

Konohamaru started making handseals and quite several of them, which Naruto thought was weird.

Naruto was close to Konohamaru now, almost ready to kick him, when suddenly leaves started to dance around him and a moment later his vision was fully covered by them.

Naruto blinked, but the leaves dispersed just as quickly as they appeared, clearing his vision. As if they never existed in the first place.

He saw that Konohamaru was ready to attack him. Naruto evaded his punch and kicked him in the face.

To his surprise Konohamaru did not react, while he experienced a strong blow to his own face, stumbling back.

What the hell?

He blocked another attack only to double over in pain clutching his stomach.

There was only one possible explanation – genjutsu.

But since when Konohamaru was able to use it? Unless...

"Tch" he mouthed trying to jump back as far away from his enemy as possible.

Sakura on the other hand charged at Hanabi, raising her fist. Her target, however, jumped using chakra, flying over the medic-nin.

By the time Sakura turned in mid-air, Hanabi already had unreeled a scroll with a "knife" character in the center.

Sakura's eyes widened. That was...

Before she could finish her thought a volley of kunais was summoned and launched in her direction.

She avoided the damage, albeit with much difficulty, and threw her own kunai, enhanced with chakra. The blade cut into the side of the Hyuuga girl, who then was encased in white smoke.

But it was no kawarimi. The smoke dispersed, confirming her assumption.

It was Moegi transformed.

Despite her suspicion she was still surprised, watching as the orange-haired girl, fell to the ground.

She sensed a movement behind her and turned, only to see real Konohamaru and Hanabi jumping at her, a tree between them and Sakura. The boy to her left and the girl to her right.

'Damn it! They had us completely fooled!' she thought while dashing to clash with them.

The Hyuuga and the Sarutobi touched the ground and bounced in each other's direction, hiding behind a tree.

Astounded Sakura watched as both figures disappeared briefly and then reappeared. Hanabi was now on the left and Konohamaru was on the right.

And each was holding an end of a rope.

Sakura instantly understood their intention, but was too slow. Both chuunins bounced once again and surrounded her with the rope. Sakura was pinned to the tree, watching in shock as her enemies continued to tie her with several more layers of rope.

"Hehe, every pervert ends up tied, right?" Konohamaru sneered at her, when only she could hear him.

"First phase is a success!" Hanabi announced. "Now let's-"

She didn't finish as she saw the second Konohamaru sliding on the ground next to her.

Poof.

Konohamaru turned back into Udon.

"Sorry" the boy commented. "Naruto dispelled my genjutsu."

Hanabi had her Byakugan activated and noticed that the rope restraining Sakura started to give up when the enraged kunoichi started to fight against it.

"Shannaro!" and just like that the rope snapped.

"Konohamaru-san! Udon-san!" Hanabi said already in her battle stance. "Take care of Uzumaki-san" she ordered. "Moegi-san, help me with Haruno-san."

Moegi didn't like being ordered around, especially by Hanabi, but she had little choice.

Both chuunin girls charged at Sakura. Moegi threw some shurikens, but Sakura simply jumped above them. Hanabi saw this as a great opportunity. She prepared herself, monitoring Sakura's chakra network and aiming for her diaphragm.

She was almost ready to strike, when her eyes noticed a flare of chakra concentrated on Sakura's raised fist. The Hyuuga stopped abruptly and jumped to the side.

She was informed of Sakura's inhuman strength by Konohamaru and Moegi. Still, she couldn't help, but wince in fear as she saw a portion of earth where she just stood explode into smithereens.

The attack threw her and Moegi in different directions. The Hyuuga crossed her arms over her face, shielding herself from debris.

She landed firmly on her feet and noticed that behind her Konohamaru and Udon were fighting at least a dozen of Naruto's clones.

"Ebisu-sensei" Konohamaru yelled. "Help us!"

"Huh?" Ebisu responded. "Are you joking? I'm not supposed to help you."

"Oh, c'mon, we will treat you as a ninja tool!" Konohamaru suggested. "If you help us, I won't tell anybody what kind of techniques you are vulnerable to!"

At this Ebisu flinched.

"Why you little.. how could you..." Ebisu hollered back, visibly shaken. "That's blackmail!"

"Yeah" Konohamaru answered, while dodging attacks. "Very ninja-like thing to do!"

"Nice try, Konohamaru!" Naruto commented. "But this tactic is a double-edged sword. Ebisu-sensei! If you help them, then I will tell EVERYBODY about those little incidents of yours!"

At this Ebisu stopped and Konohamaru cursed.

Hanabi didn't quite understand what Konohamaru had in mind when he had suggested he will get their sensei to help them, but the plan clearly didn't work.

She also noticed that Sakura rushed towards Moegi.

'Not good' she thought, running after the medic-nin.

Moegi grabbed two kunais, her absolutely last projectiles, and hurled them at Sakura, who just smiled, shifting her body to the side. The knives missed her by a few inches and Sakura turned over her shoulder briefly, watching as the kunais flew towards Hanabi, who was directly behind her.

Her eyes-widened though as soon as she saw that Hanabi didn't panic or dodge, but smoothly caught both knives, spun in place and threw them back at her.

Sakura pulled out her own kunai and deflected the incoming projectiles. This little Hyuuga was getting on her nerves!

"Catch this!" she shouted as she threw a kunai on her own. The said item was aimed not at Hanabi, but a meter or so in front of her.

And it had a paper tag attached to it.

Hanabi jumped to avoid the explosion, but Sakura followed her. She pretended she didn't see her until the last moment. Then, she turned and thrust her palm right into Sakura's liver, making her gasp.

Without a moment of hesitation Hanabi spun once more, hands reaching for the bell. She extended her hand, fingers a few inches from her target, when she felt a strong tug and halted.

With a shock she noticed that Sakura managed to catch her and was now intending to knee her in the stomach. Hanabi instinctively straightened herself and leaned her head back.

This allowed her to evade the knee strike, but exposed her face, earning her a headbutt.

It took her a moment to realize what happened and that she was lying on the ground. Wincing in pain, she slowly stood up and looked around.

Udon was sprawled on the ground, clearly unconscious. Konohamaru used some smoke bombs and explosive tags, yet he seemed to be losing his struggle against Naruto. Meanwhile, Moegi was busy dodging attacks from Sakura. She was almost defenceless, while the medin-nin sported a kunai in her hand.

Hanabi willed her aching body to move.

Finally, a kick from the pink-haired kunoichi connected and Moegi found herself on the ground, gasping for breath.

Sakura approached her, but halted when Hanabi landed between both girls, kunai in her hand. The Hyuua was breathing hard, too weak to sustain her Byakugan anymore. Nonetheless, she gripped her knife tightly and threw Sakura the most intimidating look she could muster.

"Not yet" she breathed. "This is not over yet!"

Sakura cracked her knuckles and smiled in a way that would make any serial killer proud.

"Oh c'mon" she spoke. "Just look at yourself! You can barely stand anymore!" she remarked. "If you want to fight me that much, I will have fun with you in a moment, let me finish things with Moegi first."

Hanabi gritted her teeth.

"I admit you are a very powerful and respectable kunoichi, Haruno-san. I couldn't possibly compete with you at my current level" she admitted. "But if you think I will step aside and abandon my mission or my team or any of my other responsibilities" she hissed. "Then feel free to attack me. I will defend this spot for the honour of my team, my clan and my village!" she finished boldly.

The only visible reaction was that Sakura's brow started to twitch uncontrollably.

"Is that so?" she asked and then moved in an instant.

Before Hanabi could comprehend what was happening, her kunai was on the ground and she was slammed against a tree, Sakura lifting her by her clothes, Hanabi's feet dangling in the air.

"For the team, clan and the village, huh?" Sakura remarked, looking positively murderous. "I'm not completely satisfied with this, but you know what?" she asked, leaning closer to Hanabi. The girl wanted nothing more but to Juuken Sakura in the stomach, but couldn't move anymore.

"You pass!"

For a moment everything was quiet.

"Pass?" Hanabi repeated, blinking. Pass what? She wasn't passing anything. She was in a middle of a test she needed to...

Oh...

"What?!" Konohomaru hollered despite his exhaustion. "What do you mean we pass? We didn't get the bells!"

"And you were never supposed to" Sakura answered him. "All you needed to do was prove your ability to act as a team. As I said, I'm not completely satisfied, but I will give you a passing grade. Any objections?" she asked turning to Naruto and Ebisu.

"Hehe, none!" the blond answered.

"Truly, there is much room for improvement" Ebisu wondered aloud, lifting his glasses. "But if Hanabi displayed this much effort, then I think all four of them are now ready for simple missions together!"

He turned to Naruto and Sakura.

"Thank you for your hard work! I owe you one."

"No problem!" Naruto replied. "If you want to repay the favour, you could always treat me to Ichiraku."

"No way!" Ebisu countered. "I will never let myself be tricked like that again."

Sakura giggled.

"Seems Ebisu-sensei is aware of your eating habits!"

"That's mean, Sakura-chan!" Naruto pouted.

Ebisu rolled his eyes and then turned to his team. "This concludes our exercise! Excellent work, everyone!"

"Alright!" Konohamaru jumped with his fist above the air.

Moegi was still sitting on the ground, breathing out in relief, looking tired. Still she smiled shyly at Konohamaru's antics.

Udon was conscious now, but seemed to not completely understand what was happening.

As for Hanabi, she didn't get most of the conversation just now, not that she was surprised anymore – those people were weird. Moreover, she disagreed with the "excellent work" part from Ebisu as she didn't feel that much accomplished. Still, her sensei said that the task was completed and it was enough for her.

(* * *)

They got back to the glade and bid farewell to Naruto and Sakura, with Konohamaru being loud and bold and Hanabi being polite, trying once again to maintain good relations with both high-ranking shinobi. It should gain her more respect than the Sarutobi, but Naruto still seemed unaffected by her manners, further confirming his similarity to Konohamaru.

After the two shinobis had left, the team took their chance to finally rest, with Udon and Moegi plumping unceremoniously to the ground.

Hanabi glanced at the three stakes, her experience with them still humiliating, but now she could at least recognize her mistake. She looked at her new team. They were lacking considerably in discipline and skills, but they could be quite useful when managed correctly.

Sobaya was the smartest and could come up with a battle plan for all of them. Sarutobi was the most capable on his own, but he was also highly unstable and prone to idiocy, which highly limited his capabilities. And as for the Hatsuko girl... she was probably the weakest member of their group, but that didn't bother Hanabi, as she could prove useful anyway. What bothered Hanabi was the silent hostility that Moegi seemed to direct at her. This was not as prominent as before, but it was still there.

The fact that Moegi seemed to dislike her was not a problem in itself. She was used to people who disliked her and she preferred that rather than people who pretended to like her. At least Moegi was honest.

No, the problem was that Hanabi didn't understand the reason for the girl's hostility. As far as she knew, she never did anything to anger Moegi, as she had met her only yesterday and the girl apparently disliked her even before their little fight. And Hanabi didn't like things she couldn't understand.

Whatever, she will figure it out some other time.

"Hayakawa-sensei..." she said. "What are we going to do now?"

"Do?" Moegi asked. "I say we call it a day. That exercise was enough" she remarked. "Ow... I think I will feel it tomorrow..."

"Yeah, I agree" Udon interjected, somewhat hesitantly.

"Hmpf!" Hanabi answered, not looking in their direction. "You're just weak" she said. "You lack discipline and a proper training rigour!"

She didn't want it to sound so offensive, but something in Moegi just seemed to rub her up the wrong way.

"I don't know about you guys" Konohamaru chose this moment to speak. "But I will train myself some more today. Maybe I can talk Naruto-niichan into some sparring session later?" he wondered aloud.

'At least one of them sounds like a shinobi' Hanabi thought.

"Hayakawa-sensei?" she asked again.

"I think that is enough for today's teamwork training" Ebisu announced. "We still cannot take on missions, so you are free for today. Tomorrow we will continue with our training together."

Despite being dismissed Moegi and Udon just continued to lay on the ground.

Hanabi turned to face the sun and closed her eyes, letting the sunlight caress her face. She would train later in the day, but for now she could rest as well. She still felt a little tired and her muscles were sore. But it was a good thing. No pain, no gain. This only meant that she will become stronger and advance instead of staying in place.

Then she felt a mild breeze hitting her. It felt refreshing, like it was taking away a little of her exhaustion. She clasped her hands behind her back and let the wind flow through her dark brown hair.

She had her Byakugan deactivated at the moment, so she had no idea that Konohamaru was watching her the entire time.

Hanabi might have been wearing a male's clothing, but Konohamaru had seen countless females, many of them in adult magazines, and could actually tell that the young chuunin was very much a woman. Heck, he could tell so from the moment he saw her.

This particular feeling was nagging at him since yesterday, but till now he had been unable to come to terms with it, especially given the Hyuuga's behaviour.

But now it was different. Now he could not only see her capability for teamwork, but he also saw a glimpse of her tender side. Tender and undeniably beautiful. He could only watch mesmerized, even a little jealous of wind, being able to play with her long silky hair.

Then the breeze stopped and Konohamaru's brain ironically resumed its work. Quickly processing all known facts it brought Konohamaru to a single conclusion and made him curse under his breath.

He wanted to become Hokage, beat Naruto in a fight and become a renowned shinobi. His dreams were regarded as unattainable already, but fate seemingly decided to mock him some more and add a new dream to his collection.

Konohamaru could no longer deny it: he had a crush on the most pride-obsessed, cold, troublesome and unattainable girl he had ever met.

(* * *)

It was late afternoon. Hanabi had finished her training and was now in her room, awaiting dinner when she heard a soft knocking.

"Come in" she said mindlessly, while browsing several of her old ninja scrolls.

The door slid to the side revealing a Hyuuga servant.

"Hanabi-sama, your father has asked for your presence" he announced.

"Understood" she responded and stood up. This was rather rare, but not rather expected, she mused.

She arrived at Hiashi's room and knocked softly.

"Come in" the voice from inside demanded.

She obeyed.

"You wanted to see my, father?" Hanabi asked.

"Yes, just to ask about the outcome of our bet" Hiashi responded, not bothering to stand up from whatever work he was immersed into. "Have you decided whether you want to leave your current team?"

"Yes, father."

"And what is your decision?"

"I will stay in my current team" Hanabi answered as calmly as possible. If she was obedient enough, then maybe he won't embarrass her more.

"Good" Hiashi continued to write down things at the scroll in front of him. "That means my judgement was correct. Very well, that's all."

But Hanabi didn't move.

"I have a different request" she stated.

"Yes?"

"My Rokujuuyonshou and Kaiten are severely lacking. I need to quickly increase my performance with them" she stated. "I request for another weekly training session with you, father."

Hiashi sighed.

"It is a good idea, but I'm afraid, I will not have any spare time to honour that request" he said.

'Not with training Hinata as well' he added in his thoughts.

"Not a problem" Hanabi answered. "I want for this session to replace one of our regular ones."

At this Hiashi stopped writing altogether and looked at her.

"That would mean that your other skills will suffer" he remarked.

"Not at all, I will just train my other skills with someone else" Hanabi replied, turning to leave. "After all, my team will have a lot of time to spare between missions."

"I see..." Hiashi returned to his scroll. "I will grant your request. You may leave."

Hanabi bowed slightly in sign of gratitude and then left the room. She lost the bet, but maybe she managed to upset her father with her request. Ah... the little victories.

Little did she know about a small smile that graced Hiashi's lips after she had left.

(* * *)

**Phew... That KonoHana scene there proved as difficult as I anticipated if not more, but finally looks like I wanted it to look xD.  
**

**So we have our team "ready" for future missions and Konohamaru realizing his future heart problems.**

**Anyway, the first act on the story is officially finished!**

**Currently I have mostly the general plot outline and further chapters are in the making, so it might take much longer to post the next part, so I hope we all (me included) will remain patient. The future chapters might be shorter as well.  
**

**Don't forget that reviews can always increase my writing speed, so don't hesitate and drop me one of those! All constructive opinions, notes and ideas are appreciated!**


	8. B-rank mission

**Hello, everyone!**

**Sorry for the delay, but here I bring you the latest chapter for the Flowers of Tress.**

**The delay was caused mainly by 4 things. 1) I was sick, not very serious, but disturbing enough. 2) Lack of time, a lot of work, my lack of organization skill and time management. You know what I mean. 3) I have problems with plot details and as usual I ended writing more than I intended. And 4) English is foreign language for me, so even when I write something it goes slowly...**

**And I would like to answer Master1941: I have no intention of discontinuing this story. I don't forget about it and I'm once again sorry for the delay. You might want to get used to that delay, though :/**

**Okay, without further ado, onto the story!**

**Disclaimer: as per usual.**

**(* * *)**

"So..." Tsunade said, lifting her gaze from the sheet of paper she was reading and looking at the team in front of her and Iruka. "That's your mission report?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama" Ebisu answered a little sheepishly, tossing a quick glance at his team.

Konohamaru was standing next to Ebisu, close enough to be effectively scolded the moment he tried to pull off something stupid, which he tended to do a lot in front of the Hokage. He seemed oddly calm as of late though.

Next was Moegi, who seemed angry and Udon, the latter serving as a way to separate Moegi from Hanabi. The Hyuuga girl was calm and collected as usual, but Tsunade could tell she was more than a little peeved as well.

"Well, the report says that you managed to retrieve the stolen goods, well most of them anyway" she continued. "And it does mention the group of renegade genin ninja responsible for this theft, but the report doesn't mention anything about you eliminating this group..."

"Well..." Ebisu started slowly. "We managed to engage and capture some of them close to the village, but the rest seemed to run away before we reached their base."

Tsunade and Iruka both raised their eyebrows. "Your team failed to ambush and apprehend a group of genins?"

"Well, my team can do the job when it's together with me, but we had to split in two groups and such teamwork still needs improvement it seems" Ebisu answered, eyeing Moegi and Hanabi partially explaining their bad mood.

"Hokage-sama" Hanabi started, bowing a little. "I'd like to apologize for the incompetence of my team and..."

"Your team?" Moegi turned to the Hyuuga girl, mildly surprising her. "You're the one who lacks teamwork and for your information, this is not your team! You don't own us! Let me go!" she barked at Konohamaru, when he tried to stop her, making him jump back in fear. Udon stepped back as soon as Moegi shouted, leaving the orange-haired girl and the Hyuuga face-to-face.

"It was you who couldn't follow my orders!" Hanabi answered back, her tone surprisingly raised in defence.

Iruka glanced at Tsunade fearfully, but the Hokage looked oddly calm, safe for a little brow twitching every now and then.

"Your orders?" Moegi stepped forward. "Are you deaf? You're not the leader here and I'm not your servant! I had a better plan of action, but you just had to-"

The things seemed to escalate quickly, but the dispute was instantly stopped the moment Ebisu grabbed both chuunins by their collars.

"As far as I know, I am the leader of this team" Ebisu stated, the twitching of his brows visible despite the glasses. "And you will stop this bickering this instant or else I will resume your previous punishment!"

At this all four teenagers shuddered briefly. No-one of them wanted to spend another afternoon listening to Gai and Lee's "youthful" ramblings.

Moegi snorted and backed off, stepping as far away from Hanabi as possible. Udon sheepishly returned to his previous place, clearly uncomfortable between the hot anger of his crush and the cold stare of the Hyuuga. He sighed.

"Oh?" Tsunade remarked. "You have now four students, yet it seems you still managed to retain your authority pretty well. I'm proud of you Ebisu" she finished smirking.

Not even Iruka could tell whether Tsunade wanted to sound sarcastic or not, but he was certain that Ebisu was looking daggers at her right now.

Hanabi once again looked calm and collected, but she was still peeved inside. She knew better than to further argue in front of the Hokage. It could be bad for her future career. That, however, didn't change the fact, that she was angry.

During the last week of working with her new team she had managed to completely lose all traces of respect she had for them after the bell test.

Well, to tell the truth, getting Udon to work with her was easy enough, as he never resisted much. He just had too little skill to work with her in the first place. Ebisu-sensei was the most competent of the group, being her superior and all and much more reasonable. Still she was not quite satisfied with his demeanour.

Konohamaru was worse. He was always seeking attention and wanted to have things go his own way, which irked her to no end. In fact, he was more quiet than usual, but Hanabi had not known him long enough to notice this, unlike his old teammates.

And as for Moegi...

Ghhrrr... The very thought of her made the inner peace Hanabi tried so hard to maintain shatter instantly. It's not like they didn't try to work together. They did, since she and Moegi both knew that the team needed results. But the effects were awful, as both girls were driven by some force ordering them to prove their superiority over the other. Moegi may not posses the Byakugan or any other kekke genkai, but she sure displayed a great deal of passion and determination. Hanabi deemed those unnecessary, setting them aside and putting her trust in honor and concentration instead. Yet, it seemed that Konoha shinobi often relied on their determination and willpower as proved by Naruto, Konohamaru and now Moegi.

True be told, she probably understood the reason that driven Moegi (for the most part, anyway): Hanabi was stronger, faster, more skilled and had the Byakugan. Moegi had every right to be jealous, which just so happened to result in unprofessional behaviour. What Hanabi did not understand was the reason she reacted so strongly to the competition. Moegi was no rival for her and could not surpass her. So why was she so wary of the orange-haired chuunin?

Whatever the reasons, their performance as a team was still far from satisfactory. During their training sessions they practiced teamwork and Hanabi didn't really have time to learn any of the skills her father wanted her to learn.

As for the missions...

Well, they were all rather successful. What was wrong and, for Hanabi, completely humiliating was the fact that they were mostly D-rank missions. Hyuugas don't do D-rank missions! The first mission she did was a C-rank one with her father and clan members. Yet, she had no right to oppose the Hokage and her father didn't ask for the details, so she endured it for now.

Ebisu-sensei insisted that Hanabi train her teamwork through practice, pairing her with either Moegi or Konohamaru and the latter had the ability to mess up even simple missions with his idiotic habits.

Hanabi shook her head a little. The boy had quite the potential, at least for a non-Hyuuga, yet he seemed incapable of unleashing it properly due to his lack of self-restraint and discipline.

And then was that C-rank mission when she and Moegi failed to reach the base of the enemy on time, because of Moegi's inability to follow simple commands. At least they had accomplished the last mission.

Ebisu seemed to have the same opinion on the topic.

"Hokage-sama" he started. "The mission's briefing spoke nothing of enemy ninja, therefore it was higher than C-rank and we were supposed to retrieve the stolen goods, which we did. Moreover, the locals seemed pleased with our performance. I consider this mission duly completed."

"Higher than C-rank? Are you trying to imply that your team is ready for a B-rank mission?" Tsunade mused.

Ebisu was about to politely deny, but was beat to it by Konohamaru.

"Of course we are! We are four chunnins and one jounin, for Kami's sake!" he shouted.

Udon and Moegi looked at him hesitantly. Hanabi and Ebisu glared at him openly. And Tsunade just smirked.

"Are you now?" she asked. "We have just proven that your teamwork and leadership skills are lacking."

"But Ebisu-sensei is our leader!" Konohamaru chimed in. "He knows how to keep us in line, right?". Tsunade remained silent. "C'mon! We are five people! Five! I'm sure we qualify just by numbers alone!"

"Konohamaru-kun" Moegi decided that further irking of the Hokage was unadvised.

"Konohamaru!" Iruka came to the same conclusion. "Stop that this instant! It is not your place-"

"He may be right actually" Tsunade remarked.

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks. Six pairs of eyes looked at the Hokage in disbelief. Konohamaru and Hanabi included.

"Just as our little Hoakge wannabe said" Tsunade smiled sweetly. "We have a team of four chuunins and a jounin and your previous mission was indeed accomplished as per request. As your reports states you seem to be quite good at retrieving things and there is also one Byakugan user in your team. I just might have a B-rank mission for you. Iruka, hand me the scroll from before, please."

(* * *)

Hanabi was inside her room, gathering supplies for her mission, recalling the words of her sensei from fifteen minutes ago. The request mentioned by Tsunade was an urgent one that required quick response. Therefore, she was to meet her team at the village gate in 45 minutes ready to set out. Moreover, this mission was a B-rank and was supposed to last more than a day. Both were actually new to her.

She quickly went through the mental list of the most important things, while packing her stuff. Emergency food rations. Check. Bedroll. Check. Kunais and shurikens. Check. Everything seemed to be in place, yet she couldn't help, but feel a little nervous.

It was her first real big mission and without her clan to pamper her all the time. She was used to attention and understood the reasons for fake smiles and polite gestures of those around her. This, however, didn't mean she liked it. Now was her chance to prove that she was a valuable asset to the village. That she was stronger than Hinata-neesan. Maybe even stronger than cousin Neji.

And that meant there was no room for mistakes this time. She will not allow them to get in her way.

With this and her clan informed of her mission she left the Hyuuga compound and headed for the gate.

(* * *)

When she arrived at the gate fifteen minutes before the time the only ones already assembled there were Ebisu-sensei and Udon. Not really surprising as they were the ones most organized in the group. Except her of course. On the other side, they might just live close to the gate.

"There you are" Ebisu greeted her. "Are you sure you've got everything you need?"

Hanabi shot him a small glare. What was he implying? She knew what to take with her! Although now she had the slightest of doubts, going once again through the list in her head.

"Yes" she answered after a moment, passing by her team leader and putting her backpack on the ground. Udon stood close to Ebisu, watching the street. Hanabi guessed he looked out for his friends. In her opinion he should really focus on improving his individual skills instead of relying on those two. She briefly wondered if this was his first B-rank mission, just as it was hers.

Moegi arrived shortly after and Ebisu asked her the very same question he asked Hanabi, making the Hyuuga angry in the process. Why was she getting the same treatment as this orange-haired weakling? On the other hand, seeing Moegi being scolded seemed right for some reason.

Of course Hanabi had expected for Konohamaru to be late for sure, so she was mildly surprised when she saw him arrive only five minutes later.

"We're all here then I see" Ebisu stated the obvious. "Good, let's not waste any more time."

"Tch, why didn't sensei ask you if you forgot anything?" Hanabi said to Konohamaru when she noticed the special behavior he was receiving.

"Easy" she heard Udon answer her question. "There's no point in asking. Konohamaru-kun always forgets something, so it's safe to just assume that."

"That's not true!" Konohamaru snapped. "It happened only once or twice!"

"Yeah, right... I should've known" Hanabi said, clearly disappointed with him. She expected Konohamaru to immediately start arguing, but he surprised her again when he shut up and went red with embarrassment. Then he shot an angry glance, which strangely, was aimed at Udon, then turned around. Hanabi has never seen him admit defeat and this easily. This actually meant that she was gaining advantage over everyone else in the group, yet for some reason she didn't feel the sense of accomplishment she expected.

"Okay, enough with this! We move out!" Ebisu ordered.

(* * *)

They ended up travelling for the most of the day, heading for the Land of Earth.

In the beginning it was easy enough. They ran through the forests surrounding Konoha, mostly jumping through trees and foliage, bouncing off branches with every step. Ebisu was leading the way and Hanabi stayed close behind him, checking her surroundings with her Byakugan every now and then. The Konohamaru's corps followed a few meters after them. Hanabi was sure they joked and fooled around, yet they didn't lag, got lost or even made any significant noise. Thanks to the Byakugan they managed to avoid any encounters with travellers and other shinobi.

After four hours they stopped to take a break, especially when Moegi pointed out that they covered a lot of ground already. This made Hanabi disrespect the orange-haired girl even more. If she couldn't handle such a trip, then she clearly wasn't fit to be a shinobi.

A few hours later, however, Hanabi was forced to take that back, even if only inside of her head.

The terrain around them changed. The lush woods were gradually replaced with plains, grass fields and then hills. This really shouldn't be surprising, she should have expected that not everywhere there were forests like around her home village.

Of course, the new terrain was not bad just by itself. It was actually easier to maneuver than when jumping through trees. The problem was that because of that the rest of her team now started to run faster. The change was not very significant at first, but when Hanabi saw the skyline of the mountains on the horizon she quickly realized that short missions near the village with her clan have not prepared her for this.

Evening came and soon the small hills were replaced with a multitude of varius rock formations separated by vast empty spaces and as incredulous as it sounded, Hanabi started to slowly fall behind.

"What's wrong Hanabi-chan" Moegi chimed sweetly when she caught up with her. "You're not getting tired, are you?"

Before the girl finished talking, Hanabi already picked up her pace. No way, she was going to let herself by overtaken like that!

"Hey!" she heard a voice to the right, no doubt belonging to Konohamaru. "So we are racing now?" he stated more than asked.

"Are you stupid?" she hollered."We're in the middle of an important mission and you want to play tag?"

"Oh c'mon, do you really have to be so uptight?" he accused. "There's nobody here from your clan or the village council, no need to keep the image all the time."

His words were accurate enough to make her narrow her eyes.

"Who do you thin-"

"Ebisu-sensei says we will make camp for the night when we reach the mountains and you saw no enemies around with your eyes, right? But, well, if you're not up for the challenge..."

It seemed that Konohamaru managed to push her buttons without her even realizing, because she instantly jumped at the chance to prove her skills.

"You're on!" she told him and immediately gathered chakra to her feet, speeding up and leaving him behind. She was aware, however, that she shouldn't underestimate him and sure enough he quickly raced after her.

In the end she won the race, though she started to seriously run out of breath near the finish. Of course she didn't let it show. Konohamaru, on the other hand, looked almost unfazed. Hanabi briefly wondered about his stamina.

"Not fair! You had a head start!" he obviously had enough energy to argue.

"Hmpf!" Hanabi snorted. "I'm just better and you're just a sore loser" she told him, but she had to admit – the rush of a challenge when she was running through the cool evening air was what she needed now.

"What did you say?" he asked, clearly offended. "Best out of three, c'mon, let's-"

WHACK!

Moegi hit him on the back of his head.

"Ouch! What was that for?" he asked, by Moegi only passed him by, not looking at him at all, but throwing a wary glance at Hanabi instead.

"Okay, team!" Ebisu said when he finally reached them. "Let's make a camp here for the night. Konohamaru-kun, you're the first to stand guard with me. Hanabi and Udon will change us later in the night."

(* * *)

Hanabi sat in the three, sweeping through the surroundings with her Byakugan. She could understand the reasons Ebisu-sensei arranged the guard duty. Konohamaru obviously couldn't be trusted to stay quiet and awake if he was to stand guard with Moegi, Udon or on his own. She also understood that Ebisu-sensei wanted her to spend more time with the members of her new team and Udon was certainly a better choice then Moegi. At least he will be quiet while they kept watch.

Or so she had thought.

"Hanabi-san" he started quietly and gently, as if afraid of her snapping at him, making her roll her eyes. She was not THAT intimidating, this boy was just a wuss.

"I'm trying to focus and that tends to work best with silence."

"You know, this kind of behavior is exactly why you don't have any friends."

"Friends?" she asked. "And why would I need those? All I need is..."

"Your clan, your reputation, your skills" Udon interrupted her. "I know. I know."

Hanabi looked at him weirdly as if not exactly comprehending his last remark. Udon noticed that.

"Oh, you thought that I will be too afraid to speak up?" he asked with a smile. "I don't blame you. I'm not exactly brave or talkative person, but..." he paused for a moment and looked up into the sky, as if remembering some distant memory. "But you can't go for years around Konohamaru without the ability to speak your mind, or you'll be overwhelmed and probably go crazy. Trust me, I figured it the hard way. And I'm not the only one."

Hanabi stayed quiet for a moment, turning away and looking around for any suspicious movement around the camp. They were on guard duty after all.

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Well, I think the problem with our team working together is coming from you not understanding the rest of us" she was about to answer him, but he continued. "You may view us as useless and weird, but the three of us could work quite well together. I think you should trust us a little more."

"You mean trust that girl?" she asked motioning in the direction of the camp with her head. "Sorry, but I don't think we-"

"I said you should try to understand us a little more. Personally, I have nothing against you" he stated waving his hands in front of him. "And I think we could work well enough. Konohamaru is used to being in the center of attention and he was always our leader aside Ebisu-sensei. I think he views you as his rival, but that's a good thing. That way you can both train and get better. I'm sure he respects you more than you think, at least concerning your shinobi skills."

Hanabi already knew of Konohamaru's potential, still she very much doubted he could be a rival for her. However, she decided to use Udon's talkative moment and get the information she needed.

"And what about the girl?"

"You mean Moegi..." Udon said slowly, looking at her carefully, as if she had offended him. "Well, I can't be sure about that, but she probably thinks you're jeopardizing her place on the team."

Hanabi clearly didn't understand.

"What do you mean?"

Udon hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to tell her about Moegi's feelings for Konohamaru. They never mentioned it and possibly no-one aside from Udon know. If he told Hanabi now, who knows how would she react? If Moegi learned about this, she would have his head. Furthermore, he doubted Hanabi would be able to understand it, she would probably just laugh in his face. So he decided to explain it the other way around.

"Well, she was the only girl on the team and went at her own pace, but now when you came along, I think she changed her expectations of herself."

"You mean she treats me as her rival as well?"

"Yeas and no" he answered vaguely. "This is not just about shinobi skills. More like a competition between women. You never had any female friends, so I don't think I could explain this to you very well."

Hanabi was silent, feeling a sensation in her gut, mostly anger at herself for not understanding it. She hated not understanding things.

"Look I don't expect any miracles" Udon said. "All I ask for is a little more good will and understanding. Just be a little more friendly, okay? We are not your enemies. We are your teammates. We are here to help you out."

"Maybe you're the ones needing help?" she asked him.

"We do" he admitted. "But you need it too. More than you think" with this he stood up, jumped down from the tree and sat near the camp, leaving her alone as she wanted.

For the rest of her watch she kept on thinking about what she heard. Even hours later, when she and Udon switched with Konohamaru and Ebisu she had trouble falling asleep, unable to clear her mind. Her thoughts were keeping her awake. Or maybe they were her emotions, not thoughts? What was the difference anyway? It was all her father's fault. His, the Hokage's and Moegi's. They all were to blame.

And with those thoughts she finally fell into a restless slumber.

**(* * *)**

**Frankly, I'm not exactly happy with how things turned out. This chapter was supposed to be like "go to Tsunade, have a flashback, get a mission, go somewhere, make a camp" and it took me over 3500 words to write it. The conversation at the end was not planned, it just happened :P**

**Sadly, we still lack actual romance, but we will get there eventually. I promise. Let's just hope that the relations between Hanabi and Konohamaru will benefit from this mission.**

**As I said, the next chapter will probably take quite a while to post and I would like to ask for your support. I might need it.**

**Also virtual cookie for anyone (exluding ZelgadisGW) who spots the Hellsing Abridged reference.**

**Read and review!**


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